You Must Be Courageous To Discharge Your Duties Effectively, Dogara Charges Members-Elect

Yakubu Dogara, outgoing Speaker of the House of Representatives has called on members-elect of the 9^th National Assembly to be courageous and work for the advancement of the country.

Mr. Dogara who stated this during the opening ceremony of the ongoing orientation programme for 9^th Assembly in Abuja said the members-elect need courage in order to be able to discharge their duties effectively.

The 9th National Assembly is expected to be inaugurated in June this year.

The House of Representatives speaker said: “Now let me say something about the National Assembly that we may not learn in the course of the lectures that will be delivered.

“I have said that the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly requires people of courage. Very soon, we members-elect of the National Assembly, whether distinguished senators and members of the House of Representatives, will be required to take an oath of office.

“But we must always remember that our democracy is organised in such a way that it is made to be driven by consensus.

“Where consensus fails, it is always the prerogative of the Parliament or the National Assembly of Nigeria to go first, in the sense that when it comes to bills for instance, even where the President has vetoed the bill, if the National Assembly can muster two third of its members, they can override the bill.

“And so, with regards to appropriation, no monies will be appropriated or spent in the absence of express legislative authorisation. That means the budget is the work of the National Parliament. So this work, of course, requires courage.

“And we must always remember that as elected members of the National Assembly, let us do the work of the National Assembly.

“We are meant, as the first institution of democracy, to work with the Executive and the Judiciary.

“It was never designed that the National Assembly will work for the Executive or work for the Judiciary.

“That is the aspect that I want all of us to pay attention to as we take oath as members of the National Assembly. We should know that it is about courage.

“It has been said that internal vigilance is the price for liberty. If liberty must be preserved in Nigeria because there is an institution that is internally vigilant.

“That institution has always been the institution of the National Assembly.”, he added.

Dogara won his re-election bid for the Bogoro/Dass, Nigeria/Tafawa Balewa Federal constituency of Bauchi State in the February 23 national assembly elections.