KNOCKS AND COMMENDATIONS FOR OUTGOING 6TH ANAMBRA ASSEMBLY

Some stakeholders in Anambra State have scored the outgoing sixth Assembly in the state low in their representation of their constituents in the last four years.

According to the stakeholders, though the law makers were able to pass bills and budgets, the legislators did not do well in terms of carrying their people along in some key issues bothering on their welfare.

The people also bared their minds on expectations from the seventh Assembly, which is expected to be inaugurated on Wednesday June 12, 2019.

The legislature is the third arm of government and acknowledged most important arm of government because it is made up of direct representatives of the people.

It is also the arm that distinguishes a democratic government from any other form of government.

The representatives of the people at the grassroots who make up either the state House of Assembly or National Assembly are expected to enact good laws that will have direct impact and bearing on the people they represent.

However, according to some respondents in Anambra State, the outgoing sixth Assembly failed in many ways to live up to the expectations of their constituents in various ways.

One of them, a civil society activist, Prince Chris Azor, said the inability of the law makers to organise public hearing for most of the bills they passed and the shoddy passage of annual budgets made them look like a rubber stamped legislature.

Prince Azor therefore called on the incoming seventh Assembly mostly made up of youths, to be conscious of capacity building and ready to learn in order to improve the wellbeing of the citizens.

Another respondent and an economist, Mr. Peter Onuigbo noted that Anambra State being an enterpreneurial state, one would have expected the law makers to come up with laws and motions that would encourage entrepreneurship and creative business.

Mr. Onuigbo advised the incoming assembly to always remember that their primary responsibility was to identify with their constituents and carry them along in their legislative activities.

However, a human rights activist, Comrade Obi Ochije commended the sixth Assembly for working harmoniously with the executive arm of government, which in turn translated into peace and unity in the state but agreed that more work needed to be done in terms of laws for development.

Comrade Ochije appealed to the next assembly not to see the legislative house as a place to measure wealth and affluence rather they should strive to come up with bills and motions that would tackle some of the numerous challenges confronting the masses.

The member representing Onitsha North Constituency 1, Mr. Chugbo Enwezor, scored the sixth Assembly high in terms of performance but noted that there was the need for a review of the laws guiding the operations of the legislative arm of government nationwide to enable the law makers have carryout their expected duties without undue interference of the executive arm.

The sixth Anambra State House of Assembly is made up of thirty members, which comprised twenty five male and five female while the incoming seventh Assembly will be made up of twenty nine male and one female member.

UCHE NDEKE