The Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Alhaji Mohammed Sani-Omolori has said that legislatures across the globe face a common problem of public perception .
The CNA who stated this in his key note address at a 2-day workshop on State Legislatures and Public Engagement organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies ( NILDS), said the perception problem arose as a result of lack of required engagements from time to time .
According to him, the public are neither knowledgeable about nor particularly satisfied with workings of the legislatures and unless the public are informed about what parliaments are doing , they cannot influence the institution and unless they can influence the institution they cannot hold it and their elected members fully to account .
He said that it was for the reason that the workshop had become more apt, stressing that with more of such engagements as have been exemplified by NILDS, the public can become more knowledgeable of the working of the legislature and appreciate them better.
He explained that at the national level, the National Assembly has taken active measures to engage more with the public through information provision and involvement in legislative processes .
To further open the legislature to the public at the National level, he disclosed that National Assembly in consolidating legislative openness and in line with international best practices , will for the first run an open week 16th to 19th of this month .
This , he explained, is to further open the legislature to the public , foster interaction between the public and their elected representatives and deepen public understanding of the workings of the National Assembly in promoting accountability and good governance .
In making the public engagement robust, the Speaker called on the civil society organizations to see the legislature as partners in the quest for good governance anchored on transparency and accountability and not as a body to be attacking all the time .
More often than not, CSOs constitute themselves as opposition to the legislature rather than as partners . Such disposition is not helpful to consolidating democracy that CSOs seek to achieve in the first instance .
In the long run, there can be no genuine democracy without the legislature . Indeed , it is arguably not in the extreme to postulate that the presence of legislature is the democracy , he said .
In her remarks at the occasion, the Director General of NILDS, Prof. Ladi Hamalai said the essence of organising the workshop for Clerks of State Houses of Assembly, was to replicate public engagement moves being made at the National Assembly at the state levels.
Source: NAN