Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Tuesday said, the 9th National Assembly is to re-work the Legislative Agenda in order to align it with the realities of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
He made this disclosure at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, after meeting separately with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari.
According to the speaker while fielding questions from State House Correspondents, the National Assembly would make legislations that would be in line with the COVID-19 situation.
“The National Assembly is all geared up already to make legislations and pass laws that will align with the situation we have found ourselves.
“Today, we announced on the floor of the House that we have set up an ad-hoc committee to begin to think a little bit with the 9th Legislative Agenda, which we all passed with fanfare at that time even without knowing that this is going to be visited on us.
“So, it is incumbent and proper on us to rework that legislative agenda in line with our current realities and that’s what we going to do.”
According to Gbajabiamila, the National Assembly was prepped up and already looking beyond the COVID-19 situation and working out measures to tackle the challenges that would come up from the pandemic.
“We are not out of COVID yet, but I am already calling it post COVID because we have got to move on; economic issues, health issues that need to be addressed.
“Things are going to change; things are going to be different. I met with the vice president earlier on today and we both acknowledged that post COVID Nigeria is going to be significantly different from pre-Covid Nigeria.”
On his meeting with the new Chief of Staff to the President went very well, adding that they had known each other before now.
“We’ve known each other for a while, but that was not political. Now, we’ve got to know each other politically. We had a good discussion,” Gbajabiamila said.
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