Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has reiterated the commitment of both chambers of the National Assembly to enact laws that would support the change agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari and make Nigeria better.

Saraki, who doubles as Chairman of the National Assembly, gave the reassurance at a joint session for the inauguration of the special and standing parliamentary committees of the House of Representatives, yesterday at the green chamber. He appealed for public support for the 8th Assembly to enable it live up to expectations.

Speaking at the occasion, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, shed light on the number of the newly constituted committees which some analysts have criticised as oversized and self-serving appointments.

“Some commentators have decried the large number of committees as being unwieldy and non-cost effective,” he said of reactios to the 96 committees, quickly adding: “This criticism, even though apparently well intentioned, misses the point.”

Dogara said that the experience gained from the operation of committees since 1999 shows that some ministries’ functions and mandates are very wide and cannot be effectively supervised and overseen by a single committee.

“For instance,” he said, “the House split the Committee on Education into two, namely, Basic Education and Services and Tertiary Education and Services. The old Committee on Education had a mandate to oversight the budget and policy issues of the following institutions: Unity Schools, 22 No. Federal Colleges of Education, 36 No. Federal Universities and 24 No. Federal Polytechnics.

“There is no way a single committee can adequately oversight all these agencies with House members also attending to other issues in plenary sessions, like lawmaking and other representational responsibilities.”

•Photo shows Saraki and Dogara.

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