Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji this morning explained why he and the 39 other lawmakers were conspicuously absent at the celebration to mark 1000 days of Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola’s administration.

He said the absence of the lawmakers was not in any way designed to slight the governor , but it is anchored on a deep democratic principle. The House, he said, approved money for the Governor to spend on various state projects and it is only logical that whenever he wants to give account of his stewardship, he should return to the House of Assembly to give the account.

“A lot of things are wrong with our democracy, with governors not giving due respect to the House. The legislature is not an extension of the executive. And when governors want to give their accounts, it is only proper they do so using the platform of the House, not by addressing the press, because the press or members of the public do not have the information that the lawmakers have. When they ignore the House, it only shows that the executive don’t respect the legislature’’.

The Speaker stoutly denied that the absence of the legislators was connected with the ongoing probe of the governor by a panel set up investigate allegations of ‘financial recklessness’’.

‘’There is no such connection’’, he said, ‘’as we have always been against such mode of presentation of stewardship.’’

Speaker Ikuforiji’s name was printed on the programme sheet, but he did not show up for the event.

According to the programme, the speaker was supposed to arrive venue of the event by 10.40 a.m after which the Deputy Governor, Princess Sarah Sosan would take her sit by 10.50 a.m.

A source in the State House of Assembly told P.M. NEWS that as at the time of the event, the speaker was in the office, saying that the lawmakers would have their sitting that day. The House had its session in the afternoon.

Chairman, House Committee on Information, Hon. Ipoola Omisore when contacted said he only heard of the 1000 day event last Friday but said he could not tell whether the speaker knew about it or not.

However, at the event, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele said there was no gainsaying the fact that in terms of size, Lagos State civil service was second to the Federal Government with a current workforce of 118, 551.

He stated that a breakdown of the figure showed that 18,687 belonged to the civil service; 24,731 in the4 teaching profession; 9,839 in the health service; 22,940 in the Local Government service; 28,030 in the State Universal Basic Education Board and 14,324 in various parastatals.

According to Opeyemi, at the occasion meant for the governor to interact with public servants in the state, since the inception of the current administration, the public service had waxed stronger as every effort had been put in by government to ensure that this vital instrument of governance was well positioned to meet new challenges.

He added that the administration was sparing no effort in creating a conducive environment for public servants to perform optimally, stressing that the state government had made the welfare of workers utmost priority.

“Government has treated the payment of salaries and allowances of public servants as a first charge on its financial expenditure, thus ensuring that workers and pensioners are paid before the end of each month,” he said.

The commissioner disclosed that over 65, 000 public servants had so far undergone various managerial training programmes, saying that 3,000 senior teachers were also trained in leadership and management development courses, computer literacy programmes, vocational training and other skill enhancing courses.

http://thepmnews.com/2010/02/23/why-i-shuned-fasholas-1000-day-cerebration-%E2%80%94speaker