The meeting was well attended with Twenty-Nine Rt Hon Speakers in attendance. We deliberated on a wide range issues bothering on good governance in our country. Experts on relevant topics made presentations in the course of the meeting. The Chairmen of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Nutrition and Food Security; and Committee on Inter Parliamentary Affairs Hon Chike Okafor and Hon Mark Essiet respectively, also addressed the Conference on the mandates of their committees.
After exhaustive deliberations, the Conference issued the following resolutions at the end of the meeting:
- While the Conference acknowledges the courage of Mr President on his economic policies taken so far such as the removal of Petroleum product subsidy and the floating of the exchange rate, the unintended consequences of these policies are too harsh on the populace. We therefore, urge the Federal Government and State Governments to initiate sustainable policies with equal measure of courage to ameliorate the sufferings of the people;
- The Conference observed that in spite of the constitutional provisions that grant Financial Autonomy to the State Legislature, the implementation has been observed in breach. We therefore, call on all the relevant stakeholders to comply with all the provisions in the Constitution and not by breach.
- The Conference appeals to the relevant political leaders in Rivers State to explore peaceful means to resolve the near impasse situation between the Legislative and Executive Arms of government of the state.
- The Conference strongly advocates for state policing to check the negative trend of insecurity in our country. To achieve this, the Conference appeals to the National Assembly, Presidency and other relevant Stakeholders to leverage on the ongoing constitution review exercise.
Rt Hon Adebo Ogundoyin
Chairman
