Legislature responsible for most executive decisions – Lagos speaker

The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, has said that the legislature is responsible for most of the decisions made by the executive arm of government.
A statement issued by the assembly in Lagos on Tuesday said that Ikuforiji spoke at the opening of a five-day capacity building workshop on “Basic Legislative Drafting”, organised for legislative officers and some lawmakers.
The workshop was organised by the assembly in conjunction with the International Law Institute at Alisa Hotel, Northridge, Accra, Ghana.
Ikuforiji said: “We are responsible for most of the decisions that have to do with direction of governance in a democracy.
“Everything is approved by the legislature. Is it the bill on taxation, economy, education, health, infrastructure developments- roads, transportation, security, criminal justice system?
“We control the flow of money within the government.
“We even have the power to remove the president or governor, if they are found to have contravened certain sections of the constitution that have to do with ‘gross misconduct.
“We can only use this power judiciously and responsibly only when we actually know how it works and when we are well grounded in the legislative knowledge.
“It is, therefore, undeniable here that the legislative branch of government makes most of the decisions that we usually blame the president or governor for.”
The speaker said that nearly everything in government was approved through the passage of bills and resolutions by the legislature.
Ikuforiji said that there was a need for training and development of lawmakers and staff of the legislative arm of government to meet the challenges of legislation.
Also, Segun Abiru, the Clerk of the House, in an address of welcome, said that the workshop was carefully designed to focus on the basic legislative drafting in line with the policy thrust and direction of the leadership of the House.

Dotun Oladipo