El-Rufai sets agenda for 9th Assembly

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has set agenda for the 9th National Assembly before it tenure ends in June 2023.

El-Rufai, who is the Chairman, Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture 2022, organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies in Abuja, said the agenda became imperative for the country.

Speaking on the agenda in Abuja on Monday, the governor urged the lawmakers to ensure the enactment of state and community policing law, adding that the current policing system in the country would not work.

“Nigeria is the only country with centralised policing system, the National Assembly must ensure it enact a new law to take care of the policing system in the country,” he said.

Governor El-Rufai stated that Nigeria remained the only country with a unitary judiciary, adding that the National Assembly should ensure such was addressed before the expiration of its tenure.

He also urged the lawmakers to enact a law that would ensure it made the first 12 years of education free and compulsory from primary to secondary schools.

El-Rufai said Nigeria can never make progress without educating everyone in the country.

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The governor said reforming the local government autonomy to make each local government flexible to meet the need of the state should also be the priority of the 9th Aseembly.

He said: “These are things that need some creative legislation by the 9th Assembly and they must ensure these are achieved before it winds up in June.”

Commending the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, Governor El-Rufai said the duo “are perhaps the most experienced legislators in the country”.

He said the lecture became necessary because the National Assembly was the most decapitated branch of government as it was usually dissolved whenever there was a coup.

“So this is why the lecture is important to continue to build capacity. There is a need to have this kind of interaction from time to time to make the legislature work better,” the governor added.

Speaking on why he would never be a lawmaker, El-Rufai said: “The legislature is one I know I cannot function, because I do not have the patience.”

He said the lawmaker needed hardwork to convince the people, unlike the executive where decision could be taken by the executive with the right to hire and fire.

The governor said in the National Assembly, “everyone is equal and no leadership is more tasking than managing your equal. It’s the hardest job in this country.

“I know many of my colleagues are retiring to be legislators but I can assure you I will never retire to be a legislator,” El-Rufai stated.

On his part, Lawan said El-Rufai’s remarks on the right to hire and fire was not applicable to the lawmakers.

“This is a complete reversal because our colleagues hire and can fire us but my colleagues in the 9th Assembly have been supporting us,” the Senate President said.

The Star