Reps Defend Bankole’s Frequent Foreign Trips

Bola Badmus, Abuja - 17.05.2008

HOUSE of Representatives on Friday defended its Speaker, Hon. Oladimeji Bankole, on his frequent foreign trips, saying the current leadership had identified poor capacity building of members as one of the problems affecting parliamentary business in the country.

Bankole had been on visits to the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, South Africa and United States of America in recent past, a development which had left his deputy, Hon. Usman Bayero Nafada, to preside over the affairs of the House in his absence.

Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Ezuiche Ubani, made the defence while speaking with newsmen.
According to the House spokesman, who was reviewing the activities of the House, one of the major problems confronting the parliamentary business in Nigeria is poor capacity building of members with the root cause being identified as the low return rate of members.

to develop members and this is the reasons for the Speaker’s visit to some parliament of some advanced countries in democratic government,” he said. Ezuiche, who was part of the Speaker’s team on the last trip, said the trip to the United Kingdom provided an opportunity to see how democracy was been run.

He said Nigeria still needed to learn a lot from the developed democracies, even as he pointed out that beside the problem of funding, the Western world had wrong perception of happenings in the country, which in most cases did not encourage them to contribute in training the lawmakers.

Ezuiche said the efforts of the National Assembly to ask what went wrong in the past enjoyed the support of the Western world, notwithstanding the wrong perception some of the Western governments still had about Nigeria.

Speaking on the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill, Ubani reaffirmed the determination of the leadership of the House to bring the bill back on the floor of the House.

He said the Speaker was interested in the bill, adding that members who sponsored the bill had also commenced the process of sensitising other members on its advantages and not to be seen from the perspective of journalism bill.