The newly appointed Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Kamoru Ogunlana, may be earning for himself a slot among the reformers of the country’s legislative culture given his recent inclination towards the actualisation of the country’s aspiration for e-parliamentary operations. Even if his disposition may not be earth-shaking for now, the mere fact that he has spiritedly indicated his interest in that dispensation offers hope that Nigeria may sooner than latter be ranked among progressive democracies across the world, where the legislature serves truly as the eyes and voice of the citizenry. For presently, there is a wide gulf separating the citizens of the country from the workings of the legislature at the three tiers of governance, leading to the syndrome of deep misgivings among the citizenry about the purpose, mission and powers of the legislature, as well as even the roles to be played by various actors.

Speaking recently at various fora soon after his appointment, the CNA defined as one of his missions to ensure that he leads the country’s central legislature along the course of the frontline legislatures of the world who have embraced the merits of e-parliament and operate in tandem with enhanced citizen engagement in governance.

Addressing a workshop for staff of the National Assembly in respect of the actualisation of the e-parliament dispensation, Mr Kamarou Ogunlana harped on the timeliness of the country embracing e-parliament in full measure. 

Rightly fitting into the course of transformation and upgrade of the Nigerian legislative establishment, the advocacy by the CNA is billed to advance its fortunes as its various organs progress towards the provision of credible legislative representation.  For if seen in the context of history, Nigeria’s legislative establishment has mostly been a ‘work in progress.’

Right from 1922 when the foundation of the Nigerian legislature was laid by the then governor-general, Sir Charles Hugh Clifford with the launch of the first constitution that provided for legislature for the Nigeria as a single nation state, there had been several upgrades and transformation of the institution with the present envisaged migration to e-parliament, therefore, serving as yet another phase in the ‘work in progress’.

The country’s legislature had progressed from the colonial models where the institution served as mere sounding boards to massage the ego of indigenous members representing their respective communities that they had the privilege of discussing the affairs of their emergent nation with the colonial masters, to the evolution of credible legislative dispensations where the voices of Nigerian delegates started dictating the course and content of parliamentary deliberations, and unto the independence parliament when the country adopted the Westminster model.

From there, the country moved in 1966 into the dark days of serial military interregnum when the legislature, in all its forms, was suspended, until the present when, for the first time, the country had uninterrupted democracy for over 25 years.

Seen in context therefore, at no other time than now is the country most disposed to aspire towards the adoption of e-parliament and guarantee effective citizen participation in governance. ,

The merit of e-parliament is in the enhancement of the capacity of every player in the legislative enterprise, be such the legislator, the parliamentary bureaucrat and even the ordinary citizen, to offer more to and benefit more richly from the legislative enterprise.

Essentially it borders on the adoption of the advances of digital information technology to drive the parliamentary processes from the provision of access to the citizen to reach his or her representative, as well as streamlining and fast tracking the very processes of citizen representation and management of documents and information. The key functions include implementing digital legislative information management systems, which will facilitate the access to legislative information to the citizenry, around who the entire legislative process should revolve.

Seen in historical context, the matter of talks on and the adoption of the fuller features of e-parliament by the country is not a recent dispensation. Rather, several efforts have been made by the country to migrate from the current traditional legislative practices to the modern and more utilitarian e-parliament mode had been launched with promising results.

There had also been conferences, study groups and even task forces organised at various times and operational levels with each coming up with   workable plans and strategies and even programmes. 

Nigeria had also been in collaboration with international agencies and interests to have the dispensation fully operational in the country. Just as well have been some concrete outcomes pursuant to the actualisation of the e-parliament dispensation for Nigeria.

What had, however, been a challenging factor had been that of sustenance of continuity of drive and efforts towards the actualisation of the dispensation in the face of daunting challenges, ranging from lack of political will, sundry attitudinal factors, as well as the matter of allocation of resources to the dispensation.

These challenges had rendered the noble expectation of Nigeria progressing toward fuller aspects of e-parliament unfulfilled.

In essence, the merit of Ogunlana’s disposition towards the actualisation of the e-parliament dispensation offers the hope that a fresh impetus would be availed the drive for the dispensation given his pivotal role as the chief executive officer of the country’s central legislature.