The Director General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Professor Abubakar Olanrewaju Sulaiman, has called on media practitioners to focus more attention on the reportage of oversight functions of the parliament with a view to probing and scrutinising the Executive Arm of Government in budget implementation.
He also called for more funding for members of the National Assembly for accountability and transparency in budget monitoring.
Professor Abubakar gave the charge at the weekend in Abuja during a visit by the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) FCT Correspondents Chapel to the Director General in his office.
While noting that journalists are critical stakeholders in democracy, the NILDS helmsman affirmed that media practitioners have the statutory responsibility to keep Nigerians abreast of the workings of their elected representatives, even beyond sitting for the proceedings during the plenary session.
He said Nigerians have the right to know that parliamentarians are only charged with the responsibility to make laws, oversight, and representation but not to physically implement projects like road construction.
While lamenting over the difficulties and challenges faced by the standing committees in the National Assembly in carrying out their oversight functions, Professor Abubakar called for more funding from the Parliament for effective monitoring of budget implementation by the Executive.
He said, “There are issues that border on oversight assignments, and I keep saying those issues will not be corrected until we provide more funding for the parliament to do their oversight, and that is what Nigerians will not want to hear.
“When the Parliamentarians are going to oversee the Nigerian Port Authority, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL) and the only budget you could give them is N3 million to oversight an agency that will remit trillions and you say they will not be vulnerable, then we are just deceiving ourselves.
“When the agencies you are to oversee are the ones funding the oversight, then the oversight is dead on arrival,” he argued.
He said proper funding of oversight functions of the parliament would ensure accountability and transparency on the part of the committees and would allow them to carry out their assignments without fear or favour.
“This is where journalists have to come in and interrogate how much is there for the National Assembly and state assemblies to perform their functions, especially the aspect of oversight, and this is the area you can call MDAs to question and account. I think we need to do more.”
The Director General said the Institute deals with all human endeavour in the conduct of research and study to enable the parliament to make laws based on informed decisions.
“We are talking about capacity building for parliament, for the critical stakeholders in democracy, and for us, the journalists are key. The history of this country’s independence is not complete without the press. Governance is not complete without the press,” the former Minister of National Planning said.
He said the media is not just a stakeholder but a cornerstone that has been the bridge in giving feedback on what Nigerians are going through and what the government is doing.
He therefore expressed the readiness of the institute to partner with NUJ in providing capacity building for journalists, even those who are not directly covering the National Assembly.
In his remarks, Chairman, NUJ FCT Correspondents, Comrade Jide Oyekunle, commended Professor Abubakar for his untiring and unrelenting efforts in enriching and deepening the reportorial knowledge and skills of members through periodic capacity-building training, particularly those covering the National Assembly.
He said the visit was aimed at soliciting the Director-General’s support by extending the capacity building to other journalists in various branches, such as the judiciary, finance, crime, energy, health, and others, in order to acquaint them with the workings of the legislative arm of government.
“This will go a long way towards eradicating the wrong and negative perception that Nigerians still harbour about the Legislative Arm of Government, particularly the issues surrounding the official vehicles saga,” Comrade Oyekunle said.
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