Education is one of the most impactful components of Government-Speaker

The Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, says education is one of the most impactful areas of public policy in any society.

He made the disclosure while delivering a lecture at the Second Edition of the Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture Series organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), in Abuja.

Gbajabiamila added that the ninth House of Representatives has painstakingly implemented its legislative agenda, which implementation has benefited different sectors, one of such was the intervention and resolution of the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

“When you get the education policy right, it is the gift that keeps giving through generations. A university degree or tertiary qualification of some other kind, can be the spark that changes the trajectory of an entire family. Evidence abounds of the transformations that can happen when ambition and diligence are amplified by access to quality education and training. For this reason, education is central to the consolidation approach adopted in the updated Legislative Agenda”, Hon Gbajabiamila said.

He said that he was not intending to take any victory by outlining some of the many achievements of the 9th House of Representatives.

“It is not my intention to take a victory lap of any kind. Our system of policing and the judiciary, our infrastructure and public services, and so many areas of our national life still fall far short of our best aspirations. We have made improvements to our electoral laws to enable far-reaching reforms to improve the process through which we elect political leaders. Yet, we still need to improve the internal process of nominations within the political parties”, he said.

In the lecture titled: ‘Delivering on ‘Our Contract with Nigerians’: Implementing the Legislative Agenda of the 9th House of Representatives – Progress, Challenges and Way Forward’, the speaker noted that Nigeria belongs to all citizens.

The Speaker also noted that the driving spirit of every thriving democracy is the shared commitment of its citizens to a covenant of public service and the pursuit of the common good rather than narrow objectives.

“Democracy requires active participation by an informed citizenry; it demands competence, capacity and integrity from those who oversee the affairs of the state. The success of our democracy and the progress and prosperity of our nation depends on each of us knowing and operating in the knowledge that Nigeria belongs to us all, and we each have a responsibility to build a nation and leave a legacy we can be proud of. This is our greatest test and our most defining task. And it can only be achieved by our joint efforts as citizens, brothers and sisters dedicated to a cause greater than ourselves. Our destiny is not set; it is ours to choose,” the Speaker said.

In his welcome remarks, the Director General, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Prof. Abubakar O Sulaiman, said that the occasion clearly attests to the robust nature of Executive/Legislative complementarity that is brought to bear on Democratic practices in Africa, where Nigeria is taking the lead.

He added that the lecture series would continue to be used to bring about good democratic process.