By Abel Johngold Orheruata
The National Orientation Agency (NOA) and the media has been challenged to come to the parliamentarians rescue by holding them to account, that despites the inadequacies occasioned either by mutual suspicion, distrust, paucity of funds or inconsistent policies, there was still a ray of hope for good governance if we insist on the huge pool of quality human resource with ideas to represent us in parliament.
The former Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Delta State Council and Deputy General Manager of the Pointer Newspaper Comrade Ositadimma Biose advocated this yesterday in a lecture titled “GOOD GOVERNANCE: The Prospects and Challenges of Parliamentarians” he delivered at a One-Day Forum On Citizens Conversation with Elected Public Officials organized by the NOA Delta State Directorate in collaboration with the Adenauer Stifgun Foundation in Asaba.
Comrade Biose said NOA should rise to the challenge by engaging Nigerians in activities that will naturally engender growth and development in our polity.
He noted that by so doing, corruption will no more be fashionable and this will extricate the citizens from the present woods.
“NOA must champion an attitude reorientation and moral rearmament to achieve this great feat. Our challenge are in different shapes and sizes, and no matter how they are presented, the effect is always awesome. At every turn in our political history, there are hiccups, gaping avoidable man made gullies but due to our innate self centeredness we have remained on auto reverse”. Comrade Biose added.
The the veteran journalist and erudite scholar said if we decide to have a deliberate turn around like the United Arab Emirate (UAE), Singapore or China, with our human and material endowment, Nigeria will come out of its preset woods. That as a son of history, he believe in the rise and fall of empire. And every situation has an expiry date.
He added that according to Thomas Kids Spanish tragedy, the world is a revolving circle where the servants of today are masters tomorrow. As butter flies to wanton boys, so are we to the gods.
Lamenting, the DGM of the Pointer Newspaper said we were now in an era of rubber stamp legislatures and “the Ayes have it ”. Which snowballs into having mediocre in governance at the Parliamentary level with political patronage given on a platter of gold to people of questionable intellectual depth all because of ignoble roles they played during electioneering periods.
“The holy Bible is explicit that no one can give what they don’t have, so how can one expect good governance with this kind of scenario? Today, we have allowed poverty of the mind, cultism, greed and other vices to becloud our sense of reasoning or performance which governance is devoid of our disabilities.”
Defining governance as the term for the way a group of people such as a country state, local government or even an institution, do things. That many groups create a government to decide how things are to be done, Comrade Biose noted that the word of caution here was that Governance is different from Politics.
He said Governance relates to the processes of interaction and decision-making among the actors involved in a collective problem that lead to the creation, reinforcement, or reproduction of social norms and institution.
The guest speaker added that Governance, in sum, was the way rules, norms and actions were structured, sustained, regulated, and held accountable.
The renowned Unionist and human rights crusader noted that good governance was a subjective term that describes how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources in the preferred way.
Comrade Biose enumeratedTransparency, Responsiveness, Consensus oriented, Equity and inclusiveness, Effectiveness and Efficiency, Accountability, and Participation as elements of Good Governance.
According to the former Delta NUJ Chairman, a parliamentarian was that elected representative who represents his constituency as in the case of the State and Federal House of Representatives or Senatorial district in the case of Senator in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the primary duty of a Parliamentarian was to make laws for the good governance of the State or Nation as the case may be.
“Other functions include acting as a check on the Executive Arm of government as well as over sight functions in terms of inspecting projects under his committee mandate”. He added
PROSPECTS/ CHALLENGES FOR PARLIAMENTARIANS Comrade Biose noted that in an ideal situation, the tenets of separation of powers as well as that of checks and Balances would had made good governance for parliamentarians a delight and catalyst for development when you talk of prospects and challenges, but sadly this was not the case.
“especially in our clime were the Executive Arm of government literally calls the shots and “selects” who will sit in parliament, who becomes Senate President, Speaker House of Reps or Assembly, who gets which committee position and so on” he added.
The Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborewori ably represented by the Member representing Bomadi State Constituency Hon. Engr. K. O. Preyor and others who spoke commended the NOA for putting up this kind of intellectual interactive program.
Also, the the Director General of NOA Dr. Abari Garba represented by Director Ngozi Ekeoba and the NOA Delta State Director Mr. John Ifekachukwu Emah stated that NOA will continue to sensitize and enlighten the public on good governance.
Other top dignitaries that graced the program includes lawmakers from the State Assembly, clergymen, community leader and public servants.