| By Uchechukwu Ugboaja |

THE Nigeria Good Governance Group, a political pressure group, has called for better cohesion between the legislature and their executive counterparts for the good governance and development of the country.

As a national political pressure group which has been focused on ensuring that political office holders and appointees of government carry out their responsibilities with the aim of delivering the dividends of demo racy to the electorate who voted them in, and as part of their ongoing campaign to contribute to nation and the deepening of democratic practice in our nation.

Led by Chris Garuba, a retired general and the BOT chairman, and Frederick D. Umoren, director general of the organisation, the team had a closed door meeting with Yakubu Dogara, speaker of House of Representatives and some ranking members of the House to discuss burning national issues which range from amending some laws that proscribe menial penalties for financial crimes, capital punishment, legislative/executive relations among others.

Speaking to our correspondent at the end of the meeting that lasted for more than two hours at the national assembly complex, Garuba restated the group’s commitment to advocate for good governance in Nigeria, saying it is the fastest way to end the numerous challenges facing the country as a nation.

The DG who insisted that the group decided to bring the campaign first to the House of Representatives who because of their role as the representatives of the people and that recommendations brought to them would be carefully tackled. “The Legislature holds the key to everything that has to do with good governance in Nigeria, they make the laws and that informs our decision to take our campaign of good governance first of all to the house of reps who are the main representatives of the people. It is going to go a long way because with the suggestions that we have made, if incorporated into the constitution especially with the ammendments that is going on now I can tell you that for the first time we might just begin to witness good governance in Nigeria at all levels,” he said.

The chairman of the group further confirmed that the campaign would be taken to all the organs of government to ensure that there would be an all inclusive approach to the issue of good governance especially as most local government are currently seen as mere appendages of the state governments. This, he claimed, has greatly impeded the progress and development of rural or local economy thus putting so much pressure on the federal and state governments. According to him, local government elections in Nigeria are never without the influence of the state governors and this has been the culture over the years, “but if we are to insist on good governance this has to be reversed immediately and it is the responsibility of the national assembly to come up with laws as we have just proposed in our meeting with the speaker that clearly distinguishes these organs of government,” he said.

— Apr 3, 2017 @ 19:05 GMT

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