House of Reps Holds Retreat on Security Legislative Reform
…Nwawuba Harps on Security Reforms to Address Seeming Statutory Weaknesses
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Henry Nwabuwa, Chairman, Committee on Legislative Agenda, said the committee will ensure innovative solutions to address the most pressing national problems which revolve around security.
He said during the period of the retreat, the committee, policymakers, and security experts will review bills that will address statutory weaknesses of the national security framework.
Nwawuba was quoted as saying “both the original and updated versions of the Legislative Agenda of the 9th House of Representatives, included a commitment to seek and implement legislative reforms to the security architecture of Nigeria.
“Beyond specific considerations of provisions of these bills, we are here today to collect the opinions, observations, and ideas of members, so that these contributions can be part of other security reform bills,” he said.
Rt Hon Nwawuwa said the reforms will serve the interest of the country and the committee will ensure they see the bills through to legislation.
Also, Abubakar Sulaiman, Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative & Democratic Studies (NILDS), said the retreat is the culmination of a survey on overlapping mandates in the constitutional and statutory frameworks regulating security and intelligence agencies in Nigeria conducted by KAS.
“The findings from the study, which will be presented at this retreat, show that despite perennial and often-cited problems such as insufficient funding, lack of military hardware, absence of robust intelligence gathering and analysis mechanisms and a host of other challenges, another significant challenge faced by security agencies in Nigeria relates to the poor understanding of and management of overlapping mandates”.
“Whereas overlaps in functions are often necessary and even desirable, if not properly managed, it can lead to misunderstanding and sometimes even outright conflict. However, where there is synergy between agencies, they are better able to manage conflict, share resources, and draw from the operational competencies of one another, ” Suleiman said.
Mr Sulaiman added that inter-agency collaboration can reduce the strain on existing resources and help the country effectively tackle insecurity.
The ongoing retreat on security legislative reform by House of Representatives Committee on Monitoring and Implementation of Legiative Agenda holds in Lagos, and Chaired by Rt Hon Henry Nwawuba.
Other Speakers includes, Rt Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, Dr Stefan Truamann, Consul General, German Consulate General Lagos, Dr Vladimir Kreck, of German Consulate, Dr Jake Dan-Azumi of NILDS, Dr Dubem Moghalu, Dr Shuaibu Dawanka, Legal Adviser NILDS, e’tal.
