Human rights lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), has berated the Lagos House of Assembly for secretly screening commissioners and special advisers.
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode had on September 21 sent the list of would-be cabinet members to the Assembly for screening.
The governor requested the screening and approval of 36 persons with 23 as commissioners and 13 as special advisers.
The Assembly set up a 15-man ad hoc committee headed by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Wasiu Eshilokun-Sanni, to secretly screen the nominees and make recommendations to the general Assembly.
Mr. Segun Olulade, who served the seventh Assembly as chairman of the Committee on Information and Publicity, said the screening committee was to ensure proper screening of the nominees.
He explained further that it would be tiring to screen the 36 nominees on the floor of the House since it would get to a stage where members would simply begin to ask the nominees to ‘take a bow and leave.’
The Assembly subsequently approved all the 36 nominees after a voice vote and forwarded their names to the governor for inauguration.
However, Ozekhome told our correspondent during an interview on Sunday that it was wrong of the Assembly to screen commissioners and advisers in secret in the same week that the Senate was openly screening ministerial nominees.
The senior advocate said the action was at variance with a government that preaches positive social change. He said Lagos State would never grow if the Assembly continues to act secretly and irresponsibly
He said, “The action is wrong, undemocratic, insincere, unconstitutional and reeks of moral turpitude.
The people have a right to know those who govern them. Public scrutiny allows for objection by members of the public against unsuitable persons.
“Government affairs should not be carried out with the eerie secrecy with which witches and wizards carry out their nefarious activities. Governor Ambode has to show Lagosians that he has nothing to hide.”
He said true change would never be attained if the Lagos Assembly continues to act as a ‘rubber stamp’ which panders to the dictates of the executive arm of government.
He added, “Both the governor and the Assembly should be blamed, especially the House that has abandoned its constitutional responsibility for whatever reason. All of them are making a mockery of democracy.”
Ozekhome said the fact that the Assembly was dominated by the All Progressives Congress – which is the same party the governor belongs to – did not mean that the House must be subservient.
He said, “Is the APC as a ruling party not answerable to all Nigerians, especially in a cosmopolitan state like Lagos? Is the APC a government of autocracy or dictatorship?”
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