As the 10th the House of Representatives marks its first year on June 13, Opposition Leader in the House, Rep Kingsley Chinda, has said that so far, so good, the House would continue to strive through legislative intervention to accomplish purpose of government that encompasses all Nigerians.
The Rivers State-born lawmaker, who represents Obio/Akpor federal constituency in the House, made the assertion in commemoration of the House of Representatives’ one year anniversary in the 10th National Assembly.
“All we have been doing in the last year is to ensure that we provoke or influence legislations that could catapult Nigerians from abject poverty and improve security of lives and properties of Nigerians. We ensure that where government falters, we quickly checkmate it.
“A very vivid example is the area of security which is everybody’s business and we told government that in three months, which will expire on July 16th, that if there is no improvement in the area of security, that we might be compelled to take steps to call on Nigerians to take steps to compel government to action.
“Also, all we have caused the House to compile all resolutions passed by the House on insecurity for same to be forwarded to the Executive for appropriate and adequate compliance to help curtail insecurity in Nigeria.
“Now aside that, in the area of protection of citizens’ welfare, most recently, we took a position on the cyber security levy and implementation of the Cyber Security Act. This proposed levy led to a lot of brouhaha in the society. We stood firmly with the people and shut down the levy.
“We intervened quickly to say no. The Central Bank circular, which intended to impose fees on Nigerians, was not correct, and it should be withdrawn. Fortunately, the President responded to it and withdrew that circular.
“So, we think that these are some of the roles that we should be playing to check some of the excesses of government and draw attention of Nigerians to these issues and also call on government to take steps to correct them in the interest of Nigerians,” Chinda stated.
On the proposed amendment to the Local Content Act, Chinda said: “Well, like I said, that through legislative intervention, we should strive towards accomplishing the main purpose of government.
“The Local Content Act that we have today is limited to the oil and gas sector. And because of that Local Content Act, you can agree with me that more Nigerians are becoming big players in the oil and gas sector. Knowledge and skills are being developed locally in the sector.
“Yes, the general economy in the country is also hitting hard in that sector. And so that’s why you see some of these IOCs (International oil giants, Shell, Elf, Mobil, etc) talking about either downsizing or selling off their interests and all that.
“But who are those that are buying off those interests? Most of them are Nigerians. So, this is the advantage of the Local Content Act in the oil and gas sector.
“And we felt that it would not be proper to limit it to that sector. It should also dovetail into all other aspects and facets of our economy, into construction, into medical, into ICT, and all that.
“So it will develop local capacity. It will give opportunity for our people to be big-time players in all these other fields. And then, it will also give minimum requirements for local content in those areas. Most importantly create more jobs for locals.
“Now, an example again, is the issue of unemployment. What it means is that for every locality where you go to establish these firms or these operations, those from such localities must produce at least the lower cadre of the staff of such firms. And where there is an expatriate staff, there is provision of training of locals to take over the responsibility within a set time.
“Companies are compelled by law to continue to do training for these persons and then also be prepared to hand over even the job of the expatriates to the locals within a particular number of years. Some of these provisions apply in other countries like UAE,” the Mininority Leader of the House of Representatives explained.