The governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) under the aegis of Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) have inaugurated its Legislative Programme Steering Committee.
The PGF Deputy Chairman and Co-Chairman of the committee, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo state, who spoke at its inaugural meeting on Tuesday, said the team was constituted to impact on the process of strengthening the legislative initiatives of the forum across APC states.
Obaseki said the committee would primarily provide PGF members with clear and concise contextual recommendations in terms of legal framework governing government processes and decisions.
He added that they would monitor on-going government operations, identify issues suitable for legislative review, gather and evaluate information and recommend course of action to the PGF.
He said the committee was also expected to promote and advocate the interest of the PGF member states regarding laws, regulations, socio-economic policies and other developments that might affect their states and the APC as a whole.
He added that part of the objectives of the PGF legislative programmes was to ensure cordial relations between legislatures and those operating in the executive arm, saying no democracy can flourish until its legislature is strong and progressively active.
“Further to this, is our recognition of the fact that the Legislature is the backbone of any democracy. No democracy can flourish except, and until its legislature is strong and progressively active.
“Part of the objectives of the PGF Legislative programmes, therefore, is to ensure cordial relations between our legislatures and those of us operating in the executive arm.
“Our goal is to develop a good framework of engagement through initiating activities that would enable us to review emerging challenges regularly and based on that, seek to manage and regulate all emerging differences such that conflicts between the executive and the legislature at all levels where APC rules are minimised, as these conflicts would only continue to weaken our capacity to meet the expectations of our citizens.
“That does not mean that there would be no disagreements or conflicts any more in the future, because conflicts are inevitable outcomes of politics and political activities, but through the regular engagement and interactions between the Executive and the Legislature, we will take steps to ensure that all emerging conflicts are resolved.”
Obaseki noted that the legislative programme was designed to strengthen capacity and commitment to deliver campaign promises.
He added that the PGF secretariat and the Legislative Advisers to Governors of APC states met bi-monthly to strategise and review challenges towards domesticating the prototype bills to the peculiar realities of each APC-controlled state.
He charged the committee to focus more on strengthening the capacity of APC states to have increased commitment to implement all approved initiatives between 20l9 and 2023.
He said the committee would work on peace building in view of the current national challenge whereby ethno-religious sentiments had made conflicts involving virtually all sections of society recurring, combined with challenges of managing electoral disputes and rising phenomenon of electoral insecurity.
The governor said he and his co-chairman of the committee, Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina state, would take more steps to ensure that the forum was able to give the committee the needed support to achieve its vision.
He thanked the Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Yahaya Abdullahi and the House of Representative Majority Leader, Alhassan Ado Doguwa for accepting to be part of the committee to ensure “seamless” synergy of engagements between APC and representatives in both chambers of the National Assembly.
He said the PGF secretariat had been instructed to ensure that subsequent meetings were not fixed on dates when legislative sessions were taking place, adding that steps must be taken to consult the two leaders before meetings were fixed to ensure their availability.
“This may require more initiatives around issues of peace building, not just amongst different stakeholders in our great party, but also amongst the three arms of government, particularly between the executive and the legislature. This would have to be deliberately and consciously put at the front burner of our priorities in this committee.
“Beyond proposing peace building initiatives among stakeholders within the party, we will require that our technical team take closer look at the current national challenge whereby ethno-religious sentiments have made conflicts involving virtually all sections of our society recurring.
“As the party vested with the responsibility of steering the affairs of our country, we need to come up with initiatives that would mitigate the rising incidences of conflicts in our country.
“Herein lies the importance of ensuring that Progressive Governors are able to develop good relationship with APC legislatures. Together with the leaders of the legislative arm, we can initiate actions and proposals that can halt the rising incidences of conflicts in our country,” Obaseki added.
