NASS, NILDS push for administrative autonomy in States Assemblies
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by ifeanyi nwoko15 he therefore urged all lawmakers to endeavor to declare their assets before assuming office1 this was the main advocacy at a workshop organized by the national institute for legislative and democratic studies nilds for members of the state houses of assembly1 the conference tagged two-day conference for state houses of assembly on operating within the context of first line charge was organized for members of the 36 houses of assembly1 in her welcome remarks the director general of nilds prof ladi hamalai told the lawmakers that there cannot be effective financial autonomy without the establishment of a service commission1 she explained that for the legislature in the states to be truly autonomous they must be fully responsible for all the affairs that concern them1 with particular reference to the principles of separation of power she said that the legislature could not be said to be independent if the executive arm was still in charge of employing and deploying staff members of the legislature1 we must all pass the act establishing the service commission it is part of the principles of separation of power1 she said that the financial was a good stepping stone for the legislature in states but stress that there was still a long way to go after the autonomy had been well domesticated1 reiterating the role of service commission in effective autonomy the secretary of the national assembly service commission nasc mr olu ajakaye said that without administrative autonomy1 he recalled that the period of financial dependence was very torturous as the legislature had to always go cap in hand to the executive anytime they had a programme or project1 in a bid to make the recently passed financial autonomy more effective the national assembly has commenced push to enshrine administrative autonomy in state houses of assembly1 this financial autonomy would be incomplete without administrative autonomy a situation in which the employees of the state assembly are controlled by the state civil service commission does not aurgur well for the autonomy of the legislature1 it is on this note that i call on all states that are yet to establish their state service commission to do so immediately1 we must try and distinguish the legislative service by also entrenching he nomenclatures that are peculiar to the legislative service1 today the legislature has its own unique concepts norms practices and procedures1 therefore we must imbibe our own structure in line with our procedures. many secretaries of commissions or clerks of assemblies prefer to be addressed as permanent secretaries1 the earlier we drop the civil service hangovers the better for the legislative service. this will not only create an identity for the service but will also make the service robust and enviable he said1 he commended the efforts of the dg nilds for her pragmatism in convening the conference and other relevant conferences1 declaring the conference open the clerk to the national assembly mohammed sani omolori however cautioned the lawmakers to handle the autonomy with responsibility1 he said that the financial autonomy was not an avenue for the legislature to become financially reckless stressing that any form of misappropriation would be treated as an act of corruption1 he therefore admonished the lawmakers that they must also push for administrative autonomy and take over the management of their staff if they must reap the benefit of the financial autonomy recently granted them1