The National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, near Jos, claims it is exposing House of Representatives (law makers) members-elect to upcoming challenges in health, education, and security, among other areas.
Prof. Sola Adeyanju, its spokesperson, made the announcement on Thursday in Abuja while speaking with State House journalists on the sidelines of the Strategic Leadership conference for newly-elected public office holders.
“The purpose of this retreat is to ensure that we expose our lawmakers, particularly newly-elected legislators, to research conducted in specific areas of our national life.”
“Areas such as health and education security; there have been a lot of works done and recommendations made; and we have a lot of implementation strategies that can help lawmakers understand what their role will be.”
“We want a situation in which newly elected lawmakers can come in and hit the ground running.”
“We want to give them an idea of what kind of bill we need and where we actually need some bills and lawmaking,” he added.
Prof. Adeyanju noted that existing proposals must be implemented since they would have far-reaching consequences for the nation.
“For example, recommendations were made on the type of educational system that we could have without having incessant strikes.”
“We have worked on funding healthcare services that are important to people at the grassroots level, as well as how the government can look for funding to ensure that healthcare services are adequate.”
“Some of these proposals are laying fallow out there, and we believed we should expose the new parliamentarians to them before the next Assembly is declared,” he added.
Some of the incoming legislators also spoke with the journalists.
According to Inuwa Garba (PDP-Gombe) of the Yamatu Deba Federal Constituency, the retreat provided the lawmakers-elect with the necessary expertise for law-making.
“I have to commend NIPPS for organising this programme, which I believe will provide members-elect with some basic requirements for the tasks ahead.”
“I believe we gained a lot in terms of presentation quality and answers to so many questions that were raised,” he remarked.
Chinwe Nnabuife, member-elect of Anambra’s Orumba North and Orumba South Federal Constituencies, described the retreat as “enriching.”
“This programme is very informative and educative; coming from our backgrounds, we have been made to understand what the policy-making processes are,” she remarked.
Nnabuife went on to say that freshly elected MPs were taught about policy formulation, policy execution, and policy assessment.
“We in the 10th Assembly are particular about making policies and ensuring that they are implemented and evaluated for the good of Nigerians; it will not be business as usual,” she said.
The retreat’s first two days were devoted to governors-elect, their deputies, and senators-elect.
