Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajaniamila Wednesday described Nigeria as an unfinished story.
Gbajabiamila who made the declaration in his valedictory address to close the 9th Assembly also hailed his colleagues commending the lawmakers for enacting historic laws and legislating on critical sectors to impact the lives of Nigerians.
He said “Nigeria is an unfinished story, a long tale of promise and peril, and our final chapters have not been written yet. Some persist in believing that this grand nation is a victim of history, that our destiny has already long been written, and that we cannot escape from it.
“I do not subscribe to this view. In fact, I reject it entirely. Indeed the world today is being remade by profound and powerful forces, and it may seem our destiny no longer lies within our control.
“But we are a proud and resilient people with a limitless capacity for excellence. All that we hope to be, we can. All that we desire is within reach. Our greatest successes as a nation will come when we work together across party lines, without considering differences of tribe and tongue, religion and creed towards the shared goals of our nationhood – peace and prosperity, equity and justice for all”.
Speaking on their performance, the outgoing speaker said that over the last four years, the House has worked to ensure that our country can overcome challenges and take advantage of the moment to achieve economic, social, and political transformations that benefit all the Nigerian people.
He said: “We elevated the debates in the House of Representatives and made this chamber the arena for informed exchanges about Nigeria’s future and the welfare of all our nation’s people.
“We have left our mark in every sector of our national life and positively impacted people’s lives across our country.
“We introduced discipline into the appropriations process by implementing a January to December budget cycle that ended the policy instability and economic uncertainty of the previous irregular budget cycles.
“We reformed the oversight process to ensure greater collaboration between the arms of government. We made it easier for citizens to access details of budget expenditures so that they, too, can be part of the process of ensuring accountability in the administration of public funds.
“We did not yield our constitutional obligation to ensure faithful compliance with the letter and spirit of the Appropriation Act by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the government.
Gbajabiamila further stated that while the strategic importance of the oil and gas sector to Nigeria’s socioeconomic well-being has long been apparent, successive administrations failed to put in place a functional statutory regime to allow that sector to function optimally.
He said that the House had ended that legacy of lethargy with the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
He also said that with the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act, they went even further to put the sector on the right footing.
According to him, these statutory reforms rightfully ought to have happened a long time ago. Nonetheless, they must ensure that the reforms contained in these Acts are dutifully implemented as part of a broader energy policy suited to the realities of technological advancements and the evolving demands of the global energy market.
He also informed that the parliament passed the Police Act to change the nature of relations between the police and citizens in our country and ensure that police officers who fall short of their responsibilities can be quickly held accountable.
The Act, he said expressly prohibits police officers from arresting citizens for civil wrongs, imposes an obligation on the police to inform citizens of their rights at the point of arrest, and mandates the police to ensure that persons arrested have access to their families and legal representation.
He however noted that these reforms did not end police misbehaviour in our country soon enough, there was a national reckoning.
“We responded by working with the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) to establish a new framework of accountability to hold erring members of the Police Force to account for their conduct in the performance of their duties and compel the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) to take responsibility for the failures of training and discipline that leads to such wrongful conduct.
He also hinted that the House appropriated the sum of N500 million through the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to compensate victims of police brutality nationwide.
On the outbreak of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic, he said that the House of Representatives responded by taking active measures to protect the Nigerian people, including those who work in the National Assembly.
He further said that the House passed the Emergency Economic Stimulus Bill to grant companies a rebate on Companies Income Tax, suspend import duties on medicines, medical equipment, personal protective equipment, and other essential medical materials and defer mortgage obligations on residential mortgages by contributors to the National Housing Fund.
