The Houses of Assembly in the six states of the South-West geopolitical zone on Thursday met in Ibadan to harmonise and adopt reports to have a common standing order and House rules to prevent indiscriminate impeachment of Speakers and House leaders, Punch reports.
The lawmakers said the adoption of the rules would deepen democracy and discourage executive rascality.
The Chairman, Speakers Conference in Nigeria, who doubles as the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, while speaking on behalf of his colleagues, said the decision to harmonise the House rules was beyond politics but purely for the progress of the zone.
At the meeting were the Speakers of the Houses of Assembly in the South-West states, deputy speakers, majority leaders of the house, and selected members of the legislative arm of government across the states.
Obasa said, “Having the same rules in the state Houses of Assembly in the zone will beautify our democracy because there can’t be democracy without parliament.
“It will also remove the acrimony that we witnessed in the past where few people tried to remove the speaker or change the system in the parliament. Once we have conformity in our rules, nobody can do something otherwise and get away with it. It will also stop the excesses of the executive in influencing the leadership of the Houses of Assembly without conforming with the provisions of the law because there is no way you will try to change the rule of the House without considering the effect of such on other House.”
“The new rules itself has a measure to prevent impeachment because you cannot act in isolation, if you do, we in the other part of the South-West states can come together and say no, you have not followed our rules.”
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