Thread by @Jidekuje

As an addendum to my earlier post on the basics of politics, I think we need to discuss the team that make up each arm of the Government at the various tiers and what we should be demanding from them.

t is important to remind us that Nigeria operates a bi-camera legislative system which implies that at the Federal Government tier, we have 2 houses that perform the legislative functions - Senate and the House of Representatives.

The senate is the upper house while the lower house is the House of Representatives. We have 109 senators - 3 from each state and 1 from the FCT and 360 House of Representative members- this is derived by the number of Federal constituency per state which is in variation.

Lagos as my focus has 24 Federal constituency which implies that we have 24 members representing Lagos at the House of Representatives. I still can’t understand why we operate a bi-camera legislative system but that’s a topic for another day.

At the state level, Lagos has 40 House of Assembly members. The 40 constituencies in Lagos state has a member representing them at the house of assembly.

Recall that we have 20 LGA as recognized by the Federal Government in Lagos and each LGA is comprised of 2 constituency which explains the number of House of Assembly members in Lagos. Please note that this vary from state to state.

The Councillors, house of assembly, House of Representatives and the senate perform the functions of making laws and carrying out oversight functions distinctly in the three tiers of Government.

In a nutshell, the Councillor is to the Local Government as the House of Assembly is to the State Government while the House of Representative and the Senate is to the Federal Government.

While the President, Governor and Chairman heads the executive arm at the Federal, State and Local Government respectively, they however appoint a team that heads/manage the various ministries and parastatals.

These people are referred to as Ministers at the federal level, Commissioners at the state level and Supervising councilors at the Local Government level. Please note that for their appointments to be ratified, they need to be approved by the corresponding legislative arm of Gov

If you reside in Amuwo odofin or Oriade as the case may, the following questions are for you and you might as well answer the question as it concerns your respective LGA:

1. Do you know the Councillor representing your ward?
2. Do you know any Supervising Councillor heading any ministry in your LGA?
3. Do you know the house of assembly member representing your constituency and is he accessible at his constituency office?

4. Do you know the elected officer representing your LGA at the House of Representative and is he accessible?
5. Do you know the Chairman representing your LGA?
6. Do you know any commissioner or minister that has impressed in Lagos or at the Federal level?

Regardless of your response, kindly note that it is an aberration for:
1. The Councillors not to hold periodic town hall meetings at their ward to keep their constituents abreast of their achievements and how the laws they have proposed have impacted their lives positively.

2. The state House of Assembly members not to hold periodic meetings at their constituency to keep their constituents abreast of the oversight functions they have performed and the laws they have proposed that would impact their lives positively.

3. The state House of Representative members not to hold periodic meetings at their constituency to keep their constituents abreast of the oversight functions they have performed and the laws they have proposed that would impact their lives positively.

4. The chairman not to hold periodic meetings to present their scorecard and what they intend to achieve going forward.

May I remind us that whether we like it not or not, these people represent us and If we can’t come together as groups to demand the aforementioned accountability from our elected officials, good governance would continue to elude us

and the earlier we start realizing that we can actually get them to work, the better for us and the future generation.
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