By Samuel Vincent
The Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu has tasked Senior Legislative Aides to invest time and efforts in expanding their knowledge.
Kalu also charged the SLA’s to strive for excellence as he will not accept anything short of it.
Declaring a two days retreat organized for SLA’s working in his office in Abuja open 9 would on Monday, the Deputy Speaker said the success of the legislature is important and the improvement in the knowledge of SLA’s is central to that success.
“The success of the legislature is important. The success of the legislature is the success of the Executive.
“You must invest time. You must invest effort in expanding your knowledge, research, in fact in upping your skills.”
Ms. Massimo De Luca, the Head of Cooperation of the Delegation of the European Union and ECOWAS to Nigeria, while addressing the gathering highlighted three key areas where the EU would prioritize in its partnership with the office of the Deputy Speaker.
Areas mentioned include EU improvement in electoral reforms, independence of INEC Independence and expansion of voter access. Ms De Luca also urged Kalu to support the passage of gender bills that were rejected by the 9 National Assembly.
Speaking at the event, the Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies
(NILDS), Prof. Abubakar O. Sulaiman, commended the decision of Hon Kalu to improve on skills of his Aides. He said NILDS supported the training of over 3,000 aides in the 9th National Assembly and is committed to partnering with the 10th Assembly in the training of more aides.
Mr. Danladi Plang, who spoke on behalf of Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption RoLAC Programme urged the Deputy Speaker to sustain his energy for driving key national issues. Adding that legislative aides require more than a subject knowledge.
Earlier, the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Tobi Okechukwu urged his colleagues, the aides to used the retreat to appreciate their new rules and the tasks ahead of them.
The theme of the retreat is “synergy and success”. It was supported by the EU, RoLAC and IDEA International.
