Imperative Of Legislative Oversight In Enthroning Good Governance: EBHA Example

According to the relevant section of the Amended constitution of the Federal  Republic of Nigeria in 1999, the House of Assembly of  State shall have the power to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the state or any part thereof. 
This have to be complemented with investigations and inquiries into the activities of the government and to ascertain the level of benefits of those programs and projects are to the masses. These expressive functions which are carried out by the standing Committees in the Houses of Assembly to assist the government in executing programmes and measures rightly. 

In modern governments, legislatures exercise collosal power spreading far beyond the traditional functions of law making, it spread into ensuring promotion of public good.

In Ebonyi state, the present and the 7th Assembly was inaugurated on the 13th June 2023 with it's various standing committees coming into being on the 1st of September, 2023.
On the functions of legislation, the 7th Assembly under the tutelage of Rt.Hon Chief Moses Ije Odunwa who is also the Deputy Chairman of the APC Conference of Speakers in Nigeria has passed bills into laws . 
The laws includes the law establishing the Boundary and Allied Matters Commission, to ensure amelioration of all border related crisis and to ensure all round development of the state and human empowerment. 
The  law establishing the Ebonyi State Rural Access Road Authority, which is to take care of all the rural roads in Ebonyi State among others
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The relevance of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly standing committees performing their oversight functions cannot be under- estimated, especially as it relates with the Charter of People's Needs of the state government under the leadership of His Excellency Rt. Chief Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, the 4th Executive Governor of Ebonyi state. 
In as much as the present state administration focuses on the robust development of its people, there is every need for viable supervision of its programmes to ensure that they are well managed.

This ample function made the 7th Assembly to be committed in passage of laws and motions,  for the government to have a legalized working tool in the course of its administration.

Some may argue that this oversight function of the legislature is yet to be fully appreciated, yet we can see it's glaring benefit in streamlining excessive budgeting and misplacement of priorities. 
From the records, oversight function of the legislature has helped the government to know what are the pressing needs of its people and as such made provisions for such. 

It is therefore indisputable that the legislature plays vital and indispensable role in ensuring that democratic dividends are made available to the people through her oversight functions. All that is needed now is to ensure that the tempo is sustained.

It is therefore imperative for the government and it's various working formations to have faith and trust in the Ebonyi state House of Assembly and lts standing committees, when this is done the House will be in a better position to execute their legislative and oversight functions.  On their part members of the Ebonyi state House of Assembly should as a matter of public importance, strive harder in ensuring that their activities in the areas of oversight function goes paripassu with their legislative functions. That is when we shall all have it right.

Written by Egede Sylvester IK
Public Relations Officer
Ebonyi state House of Assembly.

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