Cross River Assembly Members Move To Stop ‘Rubber Stamp’ Toga As Speaker Stifles Debate

By CrossRiverwatch Admin

The Cross River state House of Assembly has been repeatedly referred to as a ‘rubber stamp’ of the Executive arm in Cross River State, by many stakeholders. The reason is not far fetched; they rarely have the spine to question decisions of the executive arm.

However, some members of the 9th Assembly are beginning to say they are tired of wearing that toga and they want things to be done differently to redeem the image and public perception about the House.

Leading the debate on the floor of the House on Monday, Hon. Ogbor Ogbor of Biase State Constituency, argued that until the House was promoted from being a “rubber-stamp” to an “iron-stamp”, it will be difficult for it to achieve anything, whatsoever.

Hon. Itam Abang of Boki I State Constituency, noted the countless number of motions and resolutions the House takes at every given time but also decried the executive arm’s laxity in ensuring implementation.

On his part, Hon. Friday Okpechi of Obubra I State Constituency reiterated the House’s role in making bills and passing resolutions; “our job is to do the talking but the Executive’s job is to take action”. Okpechi added that there was need to frequently sit with the Governor to analyze which of the House resolutions the Governor paid deaf-ears to and which ones he has taken action on.

First timer, Hon. Elvert Ekom of Ikom II State Constituency regretted why the governor was always unwilling to attend to their resolutions whereas the House was always quick to attend to the governor’s memos whenever they arrive the floor. He further held that, if the House, for once refused to attend to the Governor’s letter, maybe the Governor will begin to see the need to take resolutions from the House seriously; noting that both the executive and legislature are all government together.

But the Speaker of the House, Hon. Eteng Jones Williams, wasn’t willing to accommodate the debate. He described it as a digression from the items on the Order Paper and requested his colleagues to shelf the debate and concentrate on the items on their order paper.

This report first apeared on crossriverdaily.com