El-Rufai Sets Agenda For 9th Assembly 

Malam Nasir Elrufai, the Governor of Kaduna State, on Monday in Abuja set the agenda for the 9th National Assembly before it expires in June 2023.

News Agency of Nigeria

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

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

According to him, Nigeria is the only country with a centralized policing system, the national assembly must ensure it enacts a new law to take care of the policing system in the country.

He said 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 school.

According to El-rufai, Nigeria can never make progress without educating everyone in the country.

El-rufai said that 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 assembly.

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 leadership of Sen. Ahmad Lawan, the Senate President, and Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, he said “the two 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,” he said.

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 hard work to convince the people, unlike the executive where decisions 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.”

He said the 9th Assembly had passed the most important legislation in the history of Nigeria.

Responding, Lawan said El-rufai’s remarks on the right to hire and the fire was not applicable to the lawmakers.

According to him, “this is a complete reversal because our colleagues hire and can fire us but my colleagues in the 9th assembly have been supporting us.”