The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila on Saturday bemoaned the state of insecurity in the country, even as he said the current COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted plans the House already made.
The Speaker stated this while unveiling the updated legislative agenda of the House at a retreat organised for the leadership and members of the House of Representatives.
The new agenda, which he said is divided into three, was in line with the current realities occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said came with unimaginable consequences.
Bemoaning the state of insecurity in the country, the Speaker noted that the country was at war in the North East with the insurgents who were bent in taking the nation back to medieval age theocracy.
According to him, the spate of insecurity in the country has made vast swathes of the country uninhabitable for citizens and unattractive to investment.
The updated Legislative Agenda titled ”Our contract with Nigerians” is divided into three components: immediate legislative action, intermediate legislative action, and long term legislative action.
Gbajabiamila’s keynote address posted on his Twitter handle read in part: “Though the House came up with a Legislative Agenda a year ago, however, in all our planning, we did not know that the world will soon change drastically, and with consequences beyond our wildest imagination.
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‘Before now, the extent of our difficulties was well known to us. We have population growth that far outpaces the rate of economic growth. Insecurity has made vast swathes of our country uninhabitable for citizens and unattractive to investment.
“We are at war, fighting insurgents in the North East who want to remake our world in the image of a medieval theocracy. Our education system is producing graduates who cannot compete in the 21st-century knowledge economy.
“At the same time, economic and social inequity exacerbates our age-old conflicts, making cooperation and progress difficult, and often impossible
“As a consequence of the new realities imposed on us by the pandemic, the question is, how do we achieve our goals in times of uncertainty?
“This is the reality from which the Nigerian people are looking to us for lasting solutions. Are we able to rise to the challenges of our times? I believe that we are. This updated Legislative Agenda, and the implementation plan which we have tagged ‘Our Contract with Nigerians’…sets out the new priorities of this 9th House of Representatives and commits us to a plan of action over the next year, and for the rest of our tenure.“
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