The House Committee on Public Petitions has promised Nigerians better times ahead with its strategy to promptly address citizen grievances.
At a strategy and capacity-building retreat in Abuja, Chairman of the Committee on Public Petitions, Mike Etaba, made this statement.
According to jerrymusa.com the European Union’s Phase II Support for Democratic Governance in Nigeria Programme helped PLAC plan the retreat.
Etaba lauded the action taken by PLAC, saying that the committee would do justice for Nigerians and help them learn how to address their concerns by filing public petitions with the House of Representatives.
“If you have a concern about anything at all, you can file a petition to the House of Representatives through the member who represents you, the Speaker of the House, or my office.
“We will transmit it to the House to take it to the floor, and now you don’t need money to fund your petition.”
Etaba claimed the House of Representatives fully funded the House Committee on Public Petitions, and the Speaker of the House was working tirelessly to ensure justice for Nigerians.
If you need a lawyer who will stand up for you, we have pro bono lawyers; thus, the committee is the last hope for the ordinary man.
If you lack self-assurance, we will provide you with attorneys who will advocate for you and defend your petition.
You don’t have to waste ten to five years in court trying to settle a dispute over which Nigerians have no right to be intimidated.
Come to the House of Representatives’ Committee on Public Petitions for impartial, mediated resolution of your issues.
Etaba explained that the committee members had become “ministers in the temple of justice” because they had acquired a quasi-judicial role with the intention of conducting investigations and mediating disputes.
He stated that the slow pace of justice administration in Nigeria has led to people resorting to self-help due to the difficult economic conditions, corruption, unemployment, wrongful termination of jobs, and perceived unfairness.
Our committee was formed to address these and other issues by taking on a quasi-judicial function and partnering with the Public Complaints Commission.
Whether or not we have been acting in these capacities is a discussion for another day. This retreat, he stated, “will provide us with tools to improve our performance as legislators and promote sound policymaking.”
Clement Nwankwo, executive director of PLAC, said the organisation helped the Committee on Public Petitions strengthen its capabilities so it could more efficiently carry out its responsibilities.
Nwankwo noted that the retreat allowed them to not only share with the public but also formulate a strategy for responding to residents’ concerns.
“The retreat’s purpose is to strengthen the committee’s capability to interact with the public, to accept petitions from the public, and to respond to those petitions by offering solutions to the issues raised by those petitions.
The public petitions committees of the National Assembly and the states have not been fully open, and citizens regularly have grievances without a means to take them to court.
“We need to get the Public Petitions Committees of the National Assembly to take in complaints from citizens and provide solutions to bridge their challenges in finding resources to go to court.”
Nwankwo said the retreat will help the committee figure out how to interact with the public and set up a system for fielding citizen complaints and offering answers.
He explained that this was the case because when people lacked the financial means to take legal action, they did one of two things: they either suffered in silence or they turned to illegal measures.
Therefore, he argued, the public petitions committees were the link, and people should use them to get their issues addressed.