Reps Speaker: Why we increased committees from 109 to 134

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, has disclosed the reasons behind the increment of the standing committees of the House from 109 to 134.

Abbas said the increase in the standing committees was to allow for better legislative oversight of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government by the lawmakers.

The Speaker made this known during an interactive session with journalists in the National Assembly Complex on Tuesday, September 19, 2023.

He stated that the aim was to share leadership positions among members, noting that some of the committees of the House were too large for effective oversight functions.

Abbas said: “For example, the Committee on Tertiary Education had over 300 agencies to supervise and at the end of every year, they will end up not being able to oversight some of them.

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“So we have to break it down to allow for efficiency and to put eyes on what the Executive is doing.

“The committee has been broken to committees on University Education, Federal Polytechnic, Federal Colleges of Education, and TETFund.”

The Speaker stated that all standing committees have been given marching orders to ensure efficiency in their work.

He disclosed that a monitoring system has been put in place to monitor and evaluate the works of the various committees.

Abbas, however, assured that under his leadership, the existing relationship with the media will be strengthened, saying the House will carry out a quarterly media briefing on its activities to enlighten Nigerians on the steps taken by the parliament.

He added that the House would train members of the Forth Estate every quarter on parliamentary reportage as part of efforts to ensure professionalism in reporting the activities of the parliament.

The Star