Members of the House of Representatives have called on President Bola Tinubu to expedite actions to address insecurity and economic crisis in the country.
They lamented that members of their constituents were suffering, saying the executive arm of government must address the issue as a matter of urgency .
They stated their position at a three-day retreat for the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, organised by Yiaga Africa in Lagos at the weekend.
Specifically, the Chairman of the Committee, Akintunde Rotimi, said the security and economic conditions demand urgency because “almost every inch of the country is facing insecurity and the people are hungry.”
He added: “We cannot deny the fact that these are very difficult times, we cannot deny the fact that insecurity is on the increase. The executive arm of government is the one that implements and carries out the duty of governance. We are calling on President Bola Tinubu to exercise some more urgency to address these issues. We interface with our constituents and we know these are very desperate times and urgent measures need to be taken.
“Recently, we summoned the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, his counterpart in Budget and National Planning, Abubakar Kyari, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Yemi Cardoso, to explain to us what they were doing. We also summoned Security Chiefs to speak to us about what the issues are.
“More than ever before, we understand and feel the pains of Nigerians and we are working towards holding the executive arm of government to carry out more immediate measures to address these issues.”
Coordinator, Yiaga Africa Centre for Legislative Engagement, Dr Samuel Oguche, said the retreat was aimed at giving the participants the platform to brainstorm on issues that would drive the activities of the committee to meet public expectations. He called on the legislators to leverage the new media, including digital and social media platforms, to influence public perception.
“This committee has been able to open new frontiers to public affairs and information dissemination. This legislature can be doing its best, but when the information is not put out there, the people will not know how far they have come,” he said.
Similarly, Executive Director, International Press Centre, Lanre Arogundade, said the perception of citizens was a challenge the legislature would need to manage effectively in their rebranding process. Arogundade said to address this issue, the legislature would need to engage more with the people.
“Don’t think there is any information that is not useful when it comes to social media. It has become an integral part of modern society’s daily life and information itself is developing rapidly,” he said.
