The Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, has warned against the use of lobbying, political connections or other external considerations in the appointment and promotion of legislative staff, saying such practices could expose the National Assembly Service to legal disputes, administrative embarrassment and institutional instability.
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Ogunlana spoke on Saturday in Abuja at the opening of a three-day retreat for top management officials of the National Assembly and the National Assembly Service Commission at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel.
He said appointments, promotions and professional development within the National Assembly Service must be guided by the National Assembly Service Act 2014 and the applicable Scheme of Service, with merit, competence, experience and performance remaining the principal considerations.
According to him, the National Assembly Service is a professional institution whose effectiveness depends largely on the quality and competence of its personnel.
“The National Assembly Service is a professional one, requiring staff to be appointed, promoted and developed principally based on merit, competence, experience and performance as stipulated by the National Assembly Service Act 2014,” Ogunlana said.
He warned that allowing considerations outside the law and established service rules to determine appointments or promotions could have consequences extending beyond individual officers.
“Where appointments or promotions are influenced by considerations outside the National Assembly Service Act 2014 and the applicable Scheme of Service, we risk creating serious institutional consequences, that is, judicial review, administrative embarrassment and institutional instability,” he said.
Ogunlana added that ignoring seniority, relevant professional experience and competence in favour of considerations such as state of origin or other external factors could weaken the capacity of the legislative bureaucracy.
“When seniority, cognate experience and competence are subordinated to ‘where you come from’ or other considerations, we may find ourselves with positions occupied by people who do not possess the requisite competence, experience or capacity for those responsibilities,” he said.
He warned that such a system could leave the institution with many officers occupying positions without a corresponding number of personnel capable of effectively discharging the responsibilities attached to those offices.
“The result can be an institution with too many people in positions and too few people with the capacity to perform those positions effectively,” he added.
The Clerk also called for a review of the current approach to staff training, saying the National Assembly should move away from ad hoc arrangements and make greater use of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies.
Ogunlana said continuous professional development was essential because National Assembly personnel were required to support lawmakers in areas including legislative procedure, committee work, policy analysis, research, financial management and parliamentary administration.
“Our staff require continuous exposure to legislative practice, parliamentary procedure, policy analysis, research, digital technologies, public financial management, ethics, leadership and emerging global practices in parliamentary administration,” he said.
He argued that the present arrangement for staff training was no longer sustainable, particularly in the face of limited financial resources.
“The present ad hoc arrangement of training personnel of the Service is not sustainable given our limited financial resources,” he stated.
Ogunlana therefore proposed that the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies be deliberately positioned as the central professional training platform for National Assembly staff.
“In this regard, I believe we should make more deliberate use of the considerable institutional capacity of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies as the central professional platform for the training and development of staff of the National Assembly Service,” he said.
In his goodwill message, the Executive Chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission, Saviour Enyiekere, said the commission remained committed to building a disciplined, competent, responsive and forward-looking legislative service.
Enyiekere said the commission would continue to promote merit and due process while paying attention to staff welfare and encouraging officers to contribute meaningfully to the development of the institution.
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, were represented at the retreat.
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