House of Reps clerk charges new Legislative staff on Diligence, Responsiveness

The Clerk of the House of Representatives, Dr. Yahaya Danzaria has said that for there to be effective service delivery in the Legislature, bureaucratic staff must be diligent and responsive to the needs of the political class within the institution.

Danzaria stated this while speaking to journalists shortly after the induction ceremony of Eighty-nine newly recruited staff of the National Assembly posted to the House of Representatives.

He said the induction was a necessary process of exposing the new staff to the rudiments of legislative practices and procedures, as future leaders who would take over the bureaucracy in the nearest future.

“My charge on them is for them to be patient, to be responsive and diligent because these are the qualities that the entire National Assembly as an institution requires of them because we believe that in years to come, they are the ones to take over from us. We are preparing them for leadership, we are preparing them for take over soon enough.

“It’s a normal thing just like we usually do for newly elected legislators…We are also showing them that there are certain things they will not understand until we give them on-the-job training. Also they need to understand the permutations of the civil service which is different from their various background, so this is the essence of this induction,” he said.

National Assembly’s structure

Delivering his address earlier, the Clerk took the inductees through the organizational structure of the Bureaucracy and the extent of its shared responsibilities through the various directorates and departments under them.

“The National Assembly Assembly runs a bicameral Legislature which means the 2 Chambers of the Senate and House of Representatives. They are populated by 109 Senators and 360 Honourable Members. This brings the total to 469 legislators. The Senate and House of Representatives bureaucracies are the 2 main Directorates of the National Assembly and the reason why the National Assembly is in place. All other directorates are mere support directorates/departments.

“The National Assembly Management is constitutionally and administratively delineated by an organogram which places the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA) at the top and serves as its Head of Service. He is followed immediately by the Deputy Clerk to the National Assembly (DCNA) who deputizes for him. Immediately after the DCNA you have the 2 Clerks of the Senate and House of Representatives. All the 4 Deputy Clerks and all Secretaries of Directorates come under this arrangement. The Management of the National Assembly is today comprised of 12 directorates and 67 departments, but for want of expertise and expansion, an additional 2 departments each are being proposed for both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

“The House of Representatives currently has 9 departments, 112 Standing Committees, 26 Ad-hoc Committees and is the most populated directorate with over 800 staff. We are generally regarded as the Peoples’ Parliament,” Dr Danzaria explained.

He added that the “size of the House of Representatives is equivalent to the entire

parliaments of United Arab Emirates -40; Gambia -53; Kuwait-65; Singapore – 93; and Liberia – 103 put together.”

Some of the inductees interviewed expressed delight in the fact that they are finally being taken through the rudiments of their career responsibilities.

They said the exercise will afford them the opportunity to know their bosses and interact with one another and exchange notes, as well as form bonds of friendship as they grow in their careers.

On hand to take the new recruits through the process of induction were directors of different services under the House Management.