10 Things NASS must do to ‘repair’ its image

Former appropriation committee chairman in the House of Representatives,

Jibrin gave the recommendations via Twitter on Wednesday, March 22, 2017.

Here are 10 recommendations by Jibrin to the National Assembly.

1.The National Assembly must open its internal budget. Nobody will ever take us serious when we try to scrutinize budget of others and ours remain a secret.

2. The National Assembly must introduce e-parliament and adopt often the electronic voting system so our constituents can clearly see how we vote on issues.

3. NASS must reform and make transparent in a way that leaves no doubt salaries, allowances and cost of running offices of senators/members.

4. NASS must review the process and mode of legislative investigation to be in tandem with global practice to avoid overbearing tendencies.

5. NASS must introduce a transparent performance template to be able to assess members hoping it scares away incompetent people from the national assembly.

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6. NASS must insist on at least 4 constituency town hall meetings by each member and senator in a year and the proceedings must be published.

7. NASS must take a deep study to agree on the limits of our powers so that we don't operate as if we have power over everything, we don't!

8.The national assembly must abolish the lopsided distribution of constituency projects where few officers hijack 40 per cent of the total allocation in billions.

9. NASS must allow internal whistle blowing and encourage external investigation of corruption allegations since we also investigate other Arms.

10. The national assembly must reform the budget process beyond rhetoric and adopt practical and verifiable strategies to eradicate budget fraud.

Jibrin was suspended for 180 days after failing to appear before the Ethics Committee over the budget padding allegation he made against Speaker Yakubu Dogara and other principal officers of the House.