House Clerk Pledges Regular Capacity Building For Support Staff

The Clerk of the House of Representatives, Dr. Yahaya Danzaria, has pledged to continually boost the capacity of legislative workers for maximum efficiency in service delivery.

Danzaria said this at the end of a three-day training programme organised in collaboration with SAHL Human Resources for staff of the House, on Lawmaking Processes in the National Assembly.

The Clerk said the training would be the first in a series that would be organised for the staff of the House of Representatives.

“We know the inherent docility with which we inherited the directorate. So we are trying to boost the morale of the staff, that is why we have arranged this three-day training. This one is a general training that cuts across all the departments.

“The second one is going to be a specialised training and my management staff are already working on it. We are going to concentrate on the chamber staff, the Bills and other adjoining support services staff. The last one would be a hybrid training, more of committee secretaries and committee clerks and other departments which would come before the end of the year.

“We believe that this type of training would boost their morale and it would add impetus to their contributions to the plenary work,” Danzaria said.

A deputy Clerk of the House and former chairman of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), National Assembly chapter, Bature Musa, said the training was a welcome development.

“Society is dynamic and you have to capture society in motion. It is a global phenomenon that organisations of this repute and an arm of the government needs to equip its staff periodically to be at par with world legislation and that is what informed this very workshop to be organised by the new Clerk of the House of Representatives.

“The takeaway from the training for me is that as a deputy clerk in the House of Reps, I have been made to understand that there are two types of oversighting. It has broadened my knowledge on how to approach this oversighting from the angle of legislators and MDAs to be oversighted.

“So it has really enriched us in terms of oversighting and legal drafting as well. We have also been briefed on how legal drafters try to fine-tune any legal policy that emanate from the legislators and it is a very welcome workshop,” he stated.