A CASE OF AKWA IBOM STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
Legislature, according to Modern day Dictionary, is a body of persons in a State or community vested with the power to make and repeal Laws.
Laws on the other hand, is summarized to mean the whole system of rules that everybody in the State or Community MUST obey.
As an Administrator, I see Law as a set of management decisions taken after considering all the factors and options available that will make implementation and enforcement possible. If a Law cannot be implemented or enforced, it is called a “bad Law”. The same thing is applicable to management decisions. If Bad decisions are taken at the top level of management, the resultant effect will be disastrous and devastating to the entire organization.
In management, decisions taken by the top level management are called STRATEGIC decision and it affects the entire organization. In private sector, the top level management is the Board of Directors which is equivalent to Legislature in Government. Any strategic decision made will form the basis to which the organization will be run and no organization will leave such an important decision in the hands of mediocre. For any organization to succeed, those at the top level management “must be equipped with the knowledge and skills of administering resources (human and natural), based on formal and informal education”.(Ayandele, 2014).
In the same vein, Law making in the State should not be left in the hands of mediocre or school drop-outs. In fact, the best professionals should be assembled to form Legislative body in a State.
Out of ignorance, sums people see the Executive arm of Government as the Government of a State. It is not so. For the sake of the uninformed, Government of a State is made up of the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary.
The Legislature, being a very important arm of Government, is vested with the power to make Laws for the good governance of a State. The Executive arm will then implement the Laws made by the Legislature while the judiciary will interpret the Laws and punish offenders.
Let me now narrow it down to Akwa Ibom State Government (though it is applicable to every State in Nigeria).
In the Executive arm which is saddled with the responsibility of implementing the Laws made by the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, starting from the Governor, his Deputy, Commissioners, Special Advisers etc, you cannot find a single person who is not a graduate of at least a first degree or equivalent (I stand to be corrected). The same thing is applicable to the Judiciary, The Chief Judge, all the Judges, Magistrates, Registrars and all others in that arm are all professionals. In fact, nobody is allowed to function there without the necessary training and a certain number of years of experience.
That is not the case in the Legislative arm. You can agree with me that the only arm of Government where you find people who attempted secondary schools or universities is the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly. How on earth do we expect such a person to function, not only in the business of Law making, but in OVERSIGHT FUNTIONS? If such person is made a Chairman of a committee like Agriculture or Finance, how is he going to face the commissioner who is a professor or professional to carry out his oversight function? It is high time we rise and change the trend come 2015.
Let us know that every House member is a potential Speaker. The Speaker of the State House of Assembly, apart from his primary function of Law making, has administrative duty to perform. As an Administrator, he must be trained; must have vision; must have the ability and capability to “give sight to the blind”. The Administrators job entails planning, organizing, coordinating activities, working with teams, or overseeing the operations of facilities within a system.
In the contrary, those who are not trained lack vision, they could be likened to a blind man living in complete darkness. They have no grounds of standing, no assurance of success, no focus, no direction, no perception. In fact, they have no confidence and trust even in themselves (with few exception).
Adm. Dr. Ayandele, in a paper: THE ROLE OF PROFESSIONAL ADMINISTRATORS IN THE ATTAINMENT OF MACROECONOMIC GOALS OF NIGERIA, presented on the occasion of the Induction of the Chartered Institute Of Administration graduates from University of Uyo said that “Administrators do have sight, and sight they say breeds a vision, vision breeds revelation, revelation breeds focus, focus breeds hope, hope breeds confidence, confidence breeds satisfaction, satisfaction breed comfort, comfort breeds pleasure, pleasure breeds joy, joy breeds peace, peace the say breeds rest. They are team players, dependable ally, accurate, truthful, highly intellectually endowed, dedicated, resilience and good decision makers”.
I urge the people of Akwa Ibom State to watch out if they actually want to reap the full benefit of effective and efficient representation in their state Constituencies.
Those in State Constituencies like Nsit Ubium, Uruan, Ibeno/Esit Eket, Nsit Atai, Itu, Ukanafun, Mbo Okobo and many others who have sent their educated people to the house can testify to this.
Let me conclude by saying that nobody without the basic education of first degree or its equivalent with years of practical experience in his/her chosen field should be voted into the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, considering the enormous challenges they face during taking strategic decisions known as the Law.
Adm. (Hon) Udoma J. Udoma, ACIA
Former Leader, Ibesikpo Asutan Legislative Council.
Writes from Uyo
