Dr. Yahaya Danzaria, the clerk of the House of Representatives, stated that in order for the legislative branch to provide good service, staff members must be diligent and sensitive to the demands of the political class. He added that without them, nothing would be possible.
Danzaria made this statement in a press conference shortly after the induction ceremony for 89 newly hired National Assembly employees who had been assigned to the House of Representatives.
As future leaders who would soon take over the bureaucracy, he claimed that the induction was a crucial step for introducing the new staff to the fundamentals of legislative practices and procedures.
“My charge on them is for them to be patient, to be responsive and diligent, because these are the qualities that the entire National Assembly as an institution requires of them, because we believe that in years to come, they are the ones to take over from us. We are preparing them for leadership, we are preparing them for take-over soon enough.
“It’s a normal thing just like we usually do for newly elected legislators. They come, they go through an induction, because in the National Assembly, we have this history of losing some members before the next Assembly, so also here we have about 200 that got into the National Assembly sometime early this year.
“So, we, in the House of Representatives, got our own share of 89 staff and we are taking them through the rudiments of legislative practices and procedures. We are also showing them that there are certain things they will not understand until we give them on-the-job training. Also, they need to understand the permutations of the civil service, which is different from their various background, so this is the essence of this induction,” he said.
Delivering his address earlier, the Clerk took the inductees through the organisational structure of the bureaucracy and the extent of its shared responsibilities through the various directorates and departments under them.