The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Tajudeen Abbas says he is committed to the training and retraining of staff towards improved National Assembly.
He made the commitment at the opening of a Capacity Development Workshop for Legislative Aides in the Office of the Speaker, in Abuja.
He said that the Workshop organised by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), is expected to strengthen the capacity for improved productivity and effective service delivery on the staff’s various desks.
The Speaker also noted that the 10th House is ready to engage with development partners to provide targeted capacity programmes for Members and staff.
“Capacity building is a major motivation for productivity in any establishment. It is my avowed commitment to ensure that capacity building is a major hallmark of my tenure as Speaker not only for staff but also for members of the House of Representatives. I want to take this opportunity to urge you to take every opportunity for training very seriously. The success of any establishment is dependent on the capacity and output of the drivers of that office. Today, you are the face of the Speaker’s office. You are the ONES that Members and visitors interface within the office of the Speaker. Your conduct, your disposition, your relationship with PEOPLE, and the way you attend to the public represent the image of the office of the Speaker. Therefore, you must continuously learn the code of ethics and public service rules in engaging yourselves in the course of discharging your responsibilities”, Hon Abbas said.
The Speaker advised the participants to always show discipline, understanding, control and capacity to drive the vision of the office of the Speaker.
“You have to respect one another in line of authority, show capacity in the position that you find yourself to justify that you are qualified to hold the position. You must protect the office and be positive and focused. I strongly urge you to seize this opportunity to bond with one another, build friendships across cultural barriers, interpersonal relationships, conflict resolution, and maintain strategic communication skills. These soft skills are required for effective interpersonal and organisational development as you serve in the Office of the Speaker and the National Assembly at large. Therefore, I challenge you to make the most of this training to become more capable and resourceful professionals in your legislative roles”, he said.
He expressed appreciation to PLAC for the opportunity, saying that he looks forward to more training programmes as the 10th Assembly progresses.
The Executive Director PLAC, Mr. Clement Nwankwo, said that the training was aimed at keeping staff of the office of the speaker abreast with the working of the office.
He said that the staff are the first contact with people coming to the office and need to understand how to respond to them.
“Well, this is the beginning of the 10th National Assembly and we do have a new Speaker with his own collection of staff and we sense that given the challenges the country is faced with right now, it is important that the staff in the Speaker’s office also understand these challenges and help the speaker to build a team that will be able to understand how to respond to the citizen’s questions and demands at this critical time”, Mr. Nwankwo said.
He added that the training would help in getting the aides ready to implement the Speaker’s open legislature agenda.
There was a series of lectures by resource persons.
The theme of the Capacity Workshop was “Improving the Effectiveness of Legislative Aides”.
Dominica Nwabufo
