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VALEDICTORY SPEECH TO THE 9TH HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES BY REP. FEMI GBAJABIAMILA, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (2019 – 2023). WEDNESDAY, 7TH JUNE 2023.
PROTOCOLS
Honourable colleagues, fellow Nigerians:
1. I thank God almighty, by whose grace and mercy we have now gathered right here as soon as extra within the folks’s Home to do our obligation at the same time as our time within the ninth Home of Representatives involves an finish.
2. This would be the final time I tackle you from this dais because the Speaker of the ninth Home of Representatives. It has been the honour of my life to serve our beloved nation from this honourable Home. I’m profoundly grateful to the folks of Surulere 1 Federal Constituency for permitting me to characterize them for the final twenty years. And I’m grateful to you, my expensive colleagues, for the honour and privilege of serving as Speaker of the ninth Home of Representatives for the final 4 years. All glory belongs to the almighty God, who ordains our destinies and guides our path.
3. Within the years since I first stepped into this hallowed chamber, the Home of Representatives has modified profoundly, simply as our nation has modified too. But, in all that point, I’ve not witnessed change on a scale and with such pace as has been the case within the final 4 years. We now have lived by a worldwide pandemic that no person anyplace noticed coming. We now have ruled at a time of worldwide crises and relentless transformations to the worldwide economic system. We now have seen our nation’s politics come of age with a brand new era of younger folks decided to have a seat on the desk and ready to struggle for it, no matter the associated fee. Simply in the previous couple of days, we have now seen the top of a subsidy regime that has distorted the power market in our nation for over thirty years.
4. When change occurs at this scale and with such an unrelenting tempo, it creates challenges and alternatives virtually in equal measure. During the last 4 years, this Home of Representatives has labored to make sure that our nation can overcome these challenges and reap the benefits of the second to realize financial, social, and political transformations that profit all of the Nigerian folks. We elevated the debates within the Home of Representatives and made this chamber the world for knowledgeable exchanges about Nigeria’s future and the welfare of all our nation’s folks. We now have left our mark in each sector of our nationwide life and positively impacted folks’s lives throughout our nation.
5. We launched self-discipline into the appropriations course of by implementing a January to December finances cycle that ended the coverage instability and financial uncertainty of the earlier irregular finances cycles. We reformed the oversight course of to make sure better collaboration between the arms of presidency. We made it simpler for residents to entry particulars of finances expenditures in order that they, too, could be a part of the method of making certain accountability within the administration of public funds. We didn’t yield our constitutional obligation to make sure devoted compliance with the letter and spirit of the Appropriation Act by the Ministries, Departments and Companies of the federal government.
6. Whereas the strategic significance of the oil and gasoline sector to Nigeria’s socioeconomic well-being has lengthy been obvious, successive administrations did not put in place a purposeful statutory regime to permit that sector to operate optimally. We ended that legacy of lethargy with the passage of the Petroleum Trade Act (PIA). With the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Manufacturing Sharing Contracts Act, we went even additional to place the sector on the proper footing. These statutory reforms rightfully must have occurred a very long time in the past. Now, we should be sure that the reforms contained in these Acts are dutifully carried out as a part of a broader power coverage suited to the realities of technological developments and the evolving calls for of the worldwide power market.
7. We handed the Police Act to vary the character of relations between the police and residents in our nation and be sure that law enforcement officials who fall wanting their tasks could be rapidly held accountable. The Act expressly prohibits law enforcement officials from arresting residents for civil wrongs, imposes an obligation on the police to tell residents of their rights on the level of arrest, and mandates the police to make sure that individuals arrested have entry to their households and authorized illustration. As well as, the Act established the Police Complaints Models as a statutory organ accessible to the general public to report police misconduct and empowered to provoke motion when such stories are acquired.
8. These reforms didn’t finish police misbehaviour in our nation; quickly sufficient, there was a nationwide reckoning. We responded by working with the Nigeria Bar Affiliation (NBA) to determine a brand new framework of accountability to carry erring members of the Police Pressure to account for his or her conduct within the efficiency of their duties and compel the Nigerian Police Pressure (NPF) to take accountability for the failures of coaching and self-discipline that results in such wrongful conduct. And we appropriated the sum of 5 Hundred Million Naira by the Nationwide Human Rights Fee (NHRC) to compensate victims of police brutality nationwide. I sincerely hope that the work of police reform will proceed within the Home of Representatives till we obtain a system of policing that meets our nation’s wants and displays the perfect of us.
9. When in March 2020, the covid-19 virus entered our shores, we turned sure with the world in experiencing a tragic disruption to our financial, political, and social lives, not like something we have now ever witnessed. This Home of Representatives responded by taking lively measures to guard the Nigerian folks, together with those that work right here within the Nationwide Meeting. We handed the Emergency Financial Stimulus Invoice to grant firms a rebate on Firms Earnings Tax, droop import duties on medicines, medical tools, private protecting tools, and different important medical supplies and defer mortgage obligations on residential mortgages by contributors to the Nationwide Housing Fund.
10. We additionally handed the Emergency Reduction and Help Invoice to supply a restricted wage assure for low-income everlasting workers of firms registered and working in Nigeria, relieve authorized customers of electrical energy in Nigeria of the burden of electrical energy expenses for a restricted interval and droop for a set interval, the implementation of the Worth Added Tax (VAT) provisions of the Finance Act 2020. While these legislations didn’t go within the Senate and by no means turned regulation, they offered the framework for the federal authorities’s coverage response to the pandemic, because the coverage concepts contained therein have been adopted and variously carried out by government orders and subsequent legislations.
11. We labored to determine, underneath emergency situations, a completely functioning care facility within the Federal Capital Territory underneath the administration of the Nationwide Centre for Illness Management (NCDC). We intervened to stop doubtlessly devastating strike motion by docs and be sure that the medical professionals on the fore of our response to the pandemic have been remunerated accurately and offered the allowances on account of them. We reviewed the statutory framework for managing infectious illness outbreaks and proposed the Infectious Illness Invoice to reform an space of our legal guidelines that hadn’t been examined for a century. In an act of service for which I stay proud and grateful, members of this Home volunteered their salaries to the covid aid fund to help the wants of probably the most susceptible in our society.
12. The legislative legacy of the ninth Home of Representatives consists of the Firms and Allied Issues Act and the Nigeria Begin-Up Act, two essential legislations geared toward altering the best way we do enterprise in Nigeria by streamlining laws, lowering pink tape, and setting the situations for the non-public sector to innovate, thrive and develop. Our legacy additionally consists of the great electoral reforms within the Electoral Act which have modified perpetually for good the best way we conduct elections in Nigeria. Whereas we recognise the necessity to proceed to work to enhance election administration in Nigeria, we should acknowledge the huge enhancements which have occurred for the reason that return to democracy. And we take pleasure in our contribution to those enhancements over the past 4 years.
13. Via the constitutional overview course of, the Home of Representatives sought to restructure our authorities to make it more practical, reorganise our politics to make it extra inclusive, enshrine environment friendly mechanisms for holding the establishments of state to account and put an finish to the debilitating conflicts that even now proceed to tear our nation aside. We made an audacious try to create a structure that addresses as soon as and for all the basic points that distract from nation-building. The constitutional amendments we enacted devolved energy and tasks over essential areas of our nationwide life in an effort to spur innovation and wholesome competitors on the subnational degree. By our joint effort, we achieved monetary independence for state homes of meeting and state judiciary, granting better autonomy to those arms of presidency in keeping with democratic greatest follow.
14. To achieve our shared ambition of constructing a affluent and peaceable nation, we should do every little thing inside our energy to make sure that our daughters and people but to be born can develop up in a extra open, extra equal society than their moms did. Sadly, we didn’t reach eradicating a few of the constitutional obstacles which have lengthy stood in the best way of girls’s full and unhindered participation within the politics, governance and economic system of our nation. This situation should proceed to be on the fore of our nationwide conversations. I hope the tenth Home of Representatives will take up the mantle and do higher than we did.
ALSO READ: I’ll work with Tinubu to develop Nigeria – Gbajabiamila
15. Past legislative interventions, the ninth Home of Representatives can be remembered for our efforts to vary how we do the enterprise of parliament, most notably for introducing info expertise instruments by the e-parliament mission and establishing the Nationwide Meeting Library Belief Fund. The Nationwide Meeting Library Belief Fund will be sure that the Nationwide Meeting is operationally suited to fulfill the wants of the Nigerian folks by offering trendy library and analysis infrastructure, coaching and capability growth for legislators and aides and working as a useful resource centre for the legislature, and all who’ve any curiosity in legislative endeavours.
16. This ninth Home, with unwavering braveness and dedication, defended the rights and dignity of the Nigerian folks overseas from each try to dehumanise and victimise our folks. Our interventions on behalf of Nigerians in China throughout the pandemic put an finish to recurrent incidents of abuse, simply as our efforts on behalf of Nigerians in South Africa and Ghana brought on the governments of these nations to step up motion to guard the lives and property of our residents in these international locations. From Ghana to South Africa, from China to the USA of America, we made it clear that this parliament will defend the rights of our residents to conduct their reliable companies with out concern of molestation and that the wellbeing of Nigerians stays our enterprise whether or not dwelling or overseas. This mannequin of parliamentary diplomacy has turn into a reliable instrument for back-channel interventions to resolve conflicts involving our residents all over the world. It’s an method that must be sustained and improved.
17. We convened a Summit on Nationwide Safety to look at our nationwide safety and defence infrastructure and establish essential areas of enchancment. I hope that work to make sure our borders are safe and our individuals are protected will proceed within the subsequent meeting and all through authorities. Via the Convention of Audio system and Heads of African Parliaments (CoSAP), we have now initiated a brand new and promising framework for interparliamentary cooperation throughout the continent to handle our shared challenges and construct higher networks for collaboration, progress, and prosperity. This effort ought to proceed in the perfect pursuits of our nation and continent.
18. Honourable colleagues, regardless of the appreciable investments we have now made to enhance our public infrastructure and the quite a few reforms we have now enacted to vary how we administer the federal government, our nation faces many vital challenges. These challenges have brought on lots of our fellow residents to marvel if the promise of democracy will ever turn into actual of their lives. Too lots of our younger folks have misplaced religion solely and are selecting in droves to hunt their fortunes and their futures in different lands. We’re shedding a few of our greatest and brightest, and if we don’t act now, the results of this loss will shortly turn into painfully evident.
19. How can we guarantee a wholesome, vigorous, rising economic system that gives alternatives for all who work exhausting to succeed by their labour and ingenuity? How can we shield our folks from the marauders and insurgents, the petty criminals and various villains who want to hurt them, whether or not for revenue or in service of different agendas? How can we restore religion in our younger folks in order that so lots of them not really feel like the one approach to obtain their greatest aspirations is to chase their fortunes in far-off, usually hostile lands? These are the essential questions all of us in authorities should reply or danger the unforgiving judgment of historical past. With every new day, we have now a possibility to make the exhausting decisions and take the mandatory actions to ensure our nation’s future. With every new day, we have now much less time to behave and a extra excellent obligation to behave rapidly.
20. As you’re all conscious, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, has nominated me to proceed serving the folks of Nigeria as Chief of Workers within the Presidency. I’m humbled by this new name to obligation, and I’m grateful to all of you who’ve reached out to me. I’ve lengthy believed that the final word finish of all political and governance efforts should be to realize measurable enhancements within the lives of the folks on whose behalf we maintain workplace. This basic perception within the accountability of presidency to be a drive for good has been my guiding gentle. It would proceed to be so in my new endeavours. I humbly ask on your prayers and help on this new chapter. I guarantee you that on this new position, I’ll work to make sure a cordial and productive relationship between the chief and legislative arms of presidency while respecting the independence and prerogatives of the legislature.
21. For every little thing, there’s a time and season, and we’re obligated every season to do probably the most and the perfect we are able to within the time we have now. It is a good rule for politics and for all times itself. The ninth Home of Representatives is ending, and the tenth will shortly be convened. All of us, these whose time in workplace is ending, and people for whom obligation continues, will face the judgment of historical past. I urge you to maintain this in thoughts and let your actions be guided by the need to make sure that you’re not discovered wanting by man or God within the last judgment. As a member and Speaker of this honourable Home, I’ve travelled the size of this nation, and I’ve been amazed by the expertise and capability, dogged dedication, and resilience of the Nigerian folks. The abundance of those qualities amongst our folks assures me that if authorities lives as much as its tasks, our individuals are able to do the remaining. So, we should reside as much as our tasks; there isn’t a different choice.
22. I need to categorical my honest appreciation to the civil servants and aides who’ve toiled tirelessly with me throughout my time right here; I thanks all most sincerely on your service. I need you to know that the roles you play in holding this establishment working are essential to reaching the form of nation we need. I urge you to please take pleasure in performing these roles credibly always. Attain for excellence in all you do, and resist the cynicism and pessimism that encourages laziness and ineptitude. I additionally want to thank our compatriots within the media for his or her devoted efforts in making certain that the train of state and financial energy is truthful and correct and in service of the better good. Loads of the work we do within the legislature wouldn’t be doable with out the help and partnerships of civil society organisations and growth companions. I need to particularly thank the Coverage and Authorized Advocacy Centre (PLAC), the Nigeria Bar Affiliation (NBA), Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and several other others who’ve confirmed worthy companions in progress.
23. For the higher a part of my grownup life, I’ve traversed the halls of this complicated, legislated from the chamber of this hallowed Home and constructed relationships with folks from throughout the nation, colleagues previous and current. I’ve met and established real bonds of brotherhood with a few of the most superb human beings, and collectively we have now shared experiences that strengthened these bonds. As I transition into my new position, a task not like the one I’ve had for these a few years, I ask on your help and greatest needs as we proceed to work collectively to advance the trigger and fulfil the promise of Nigeria. I’ll miss all of you, and I’ll miss this Home. I need you to relaxation assured that wherever the street takes me, I’ll carry you all in my coronary heart fondly as a result of you’ve got enriched my life in methods phrases alone can’t absolutely categorical.
24. Nigeria is an unfinished story, a protracted story of promise and peril, and our last chapters haven’t been written but. Some persist in believing that this grand nation is a sufferer of historical past, that our future has already lengthy been written, and that we can’t escape from it. I don’t subscribe to this view. Actually, I reject it solely. Certainly the world right now is being remade by profound and highly effective forces, and it might appear our future not lies inside our management. However we’re a proud and resilient folks with a limitless capability for excellence. All that we hope to be, we are able to. All that we need is inside attain. Our biggest successes as a nation will come once we work collectively throughout occasion traces, with out contemplating variations of tribe and tongue, faith and creed in the direction of the shared targets of our nationhood – peace and prosperity, fairness and justice for all.
25. As we carry this ninth Home of Representatives to an in depth, I’m proud to say that by our joint effort at nation-building, we have now ensured that the reason for Nigeria will lengthy endure and the desires of our nation’s founding fathers won’t die. We got here, we noticed, and whereas there’s a lot but to overcome, we have now finished our obligation to God and nation. I got here to this honourable Home twenty years in the past, full of hope for our nation’s future. I go away this workplace right now with hope unbroken, and my enthusiasm to serve stays undiminished. I’m extra assured that our greatest days are forward and that we are able to construct a future the place our nation is a beacon of excellence, a refuge and a spot of pleasure for all who salute our flag and swear allegiance to our structure. It is a future value preventing for; that is the long run I’ll by no means cease preventing for.
26. Thanks, goodbye, God bless you, and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
4. When change occurs at this scale and with such an unrelenting tempo, it creates challenges and alternatives virtually in equal measure. During the last 4 years, this Home of Representatives has labored to make sure that our nation can overcome these challenges and reap the benefits of the second to realize financial, social, and political transformations that profit all of the Nigerian folks. We elevated the debates within the Home of Representatives and made this chamber the world for knowledgeable exchanges about Nigeria’s future and the welfare of all our nation’s folks. We now have left our mark in each sector of our nationwide life and positively impacted folks’s lives throughout our nation.
5. We launched self-discipline into the appropriations course of by implementing a January to December finances cycle that ended the coverage instability and financial uncertainty of the earlier irregular finances cycles. We reformed the oversight course of to make sure better collaboration between the arms of presidency. We made it simpler for residents to entry particulars of finances expenditures in order that they, too, could be a part of the method of making certain accountability within the administration of public funds. We didn’t yield our constitutional obligation to make sure devoted compliance with the letter and spirit of the Appropriation Act by the Ministries, Departments and Companies of the federal government.
6. Whereas the strategic significance of the oil and gasoline sector to Nigeria’s socioeconomic well-being has lengthy been obvious, successive administrations did not put in place a purposeful statutory regime to permit that sector to operate optimally. We ended that legacy of lethargy with the passage of the Petroleum Trade Act (PIA). With the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Manufacturing Sharing Contracts Act, we went even additional to place the sector on the proper footing. These statutory reforms rightfully must have occurred a very long time in the past. Now, we should be sure that the reforms contained in these Acts are dutifully carried out as a part of a broader power coverage suited to the realities of technological developments and the evolving calls for of the worldwide power market.
7. We handed the Police Act to vary the character of relations between the police and residents in our nation and be sure that law enforcement officials who fall wanting their tasks could be rapidly held accountable. The Act expressly prohibits law enforcement officials from arresting residents for civil wrongs, imposes an obligation on the police to tell residents of their rights on the level of arrest, and mandates the police to make sure that individuals arrested have entry to their households and authorized illustration. As well as, the Act established the Police Complaints Models as a statutory organ accessible to the general public to report police misconduct and empowered to provoke motion when such stories are acquired.
8. These reforms didn’t finish police misbehaviour in our nation; quickly sufficient, there was a nationwide reckoning. We responded by working with the Nigeria Bar Affiliation (NBA) to determine a brand new framework of accountability to carry erring members of the Police Pressure to account for his or her conduct within the efficiency of their duties and compel the Nigerian Police Pressure (NPF) to take accountability for the failures of coaching and self-discipline that results in such wrongful conduct. And we appropriated the sum of 5 Hundred Million Naira by the Nationwide Human Rights Fee (NHRC) to compensate victims of police brutality nationwide. I sincerely hope that the work of police reform will proceed within the Home of Representatives till we obtain a system of policing that meets our nation’s wants and displays the perfect of us.
9. When in March 2020, the covid-19 virus entered our shores, we turned sure with the world in experiencing a tragic disruption to our financial, political, and social lives, not like something we have now ever witnessed. This Home of Representatives responded by taking lively measures to guard the Nigerian folks, together with those that work right here within the Nationwide Meeting. We handed the Emergency Financial Stimulus Invoice to grant firms a rebate on Firms Earnings Tax, droop import duties on medicines, medical tools, private protecting tools, and different important medical supplies and defer mortgage obligations on residential mortgages by contributors to the Nationwide Housing Fund.
10. We additionally handed the Emergency Reduction and Help Invoice to supply a restricted wage assure for low-income everlasting workers of firms registered and working in Nigeria, relieve authorized customers of electrical energy in Nigeria of the burden of electrical energy expenses for a restricted interval and droop for a set interval, the implementation of the Worth Added Tax (VAT) provisions of the Finance Act 2020. While these legislations didn’t go within the Senate and by no means turned regulation, they offered the framework for the federal authorities’s coverage response to the pandemic, because the coverage concepts contained therein have been adopted and variously carried out by government orders and subsequent legislations.
11. We labored to determine, underneath emergency situations, a completely functioning care facility within the Federal Capital Territory underneath the administration of the Nationwide Centre for Illness Management (NCDC). We intervened to stop doubtlessly devastating strike motion by docs and be sure that the medical professionals on the fore of our response to the pandemic have been remunerated accurately and offered the allowances on account of them. We reviewed the statutory framework for managing infectious illness outbreaks and proposed the Infectious Illness Invoice to reform an space of our legal guidelines that hadn’t been examined for a century. In an act of service for which I stay proud and grateful, members of this Home volunteered their salaries to the covid aid fund to help the wants of probably the most susceptible in our society.
12. The legislative legacy of the ninth Home of Representatives consists of the Firms and Allied Issues Act and the Nigeria Begin-Up Act, two essential legislations geared toward altering the best way we do enterprise in Nigeria by streamlining laws, lowering pink tape, and setting the situations for the non-public sector to innovate, thrive and develop. Our legacy additionally consists of the great electoral reforms within the Electoral Act which have modified perpetually for good the best way we conduct elections in Nigeria. Whereas we recognise the necessity to proceed to work to enhance election administration in Nigeria, we should acknowledge the huge enhancements which have occurred for the reason that return to democracy. And we take pleasure in our contribution to those enhancements over the past 4 years.
13. Via the constitutional overview course of, the Home of Representatives sought to restructure our authorities to make it more practical, reorganise our politics to make it extra inclusive, enshrine environment friendly mechanisms for holding the establishments of state to account and put an finish to the debilitating conflicts that even now proceed to tear our nation aside. We made an audacious try to create a structure that addresses as soon as and for all the basic points that distract from nation-building. The constitutional amendments we enacted devolved energy and tasks over essential areas of our nationwide life in an effort to spur innovation and wholesome competitors on the subnational degree. By our joint effort, we achieved monetary independence for state homes of meeting and state judiciary, granting better autonomy to those arms of presidency in keeping with democratic greatest follow.
14. To achieve our shared ambition of constructing a affluent and peaceable nation, we should do every little thing inside our energy to make sure that our daughters and people but to be born can develop up in a extra open, extra equal society than their moms did. Sadly, we didn’t reach eradicating a few of the constitutional obstacles which have lengthy stood in the best way of girls’s full and unhindered participation within the politics, governance and economic system of our nation. This situation should proceed to be on the fore of our nationwide conversations. I hope the tenth Home of Representatives will take up the mantle and do higher than we did.
15. Past legislative interventions, the ninth Home of Representatives can be remembered for our efforts to vary how we do the enterprise of parliament, most notably for introducing info expertise instruments by the e-parliament mission and establishing the Nationwide Meeting Library Belief Fund. The Nationwide Meeting Library Belief Fund will be sure that the Nationwide Meeting is operationally suited to fulfill the wants of the Nigerian folks by offering trendy library and analysis infrastructure, coaching and capability growth for legislators and aides and working as a useful resource centre for the legislature, and all who’ve any curiosity in legislative endeavours.
16. This ninth Home, with unwavering braveness and dedication, defended the rights and dignity of the Nigerian folks overseas from each try to dehumanise and victimise our folks. Our interventions on behalf of Nigerians in China throughout the pandemic put an finish to recurrent incidents of abuse, simply as our efforts on behalf of Nigerians in South Africa and Ghana brought on the governments of these nations to step up motion to guard the lives and property of our residents in these international locations. From Ghana to South Africa, from China to the USA of America, we made it clear that this parliament will defend the rights of our residents to conduct their reliable companies with out concern of molestation and that the wellbeing of Nigerians stays our enterprise whether or not dwelling or overseas. This mannequin of parliamentary diplomacy has turn into a reliable instrument for back-channel interventions to resolve conflicts involving our residents all over the world. It’s an method that must be sustained and improved.
17. We convened a Summit on Nationwide Safety to look at our nationwide safety and defence infrastructure and establish essential areas of enchancment. I hope that work to make sure our borders are safe and our individuals are protected will proceed within the subsequent meeting and all through authorities. Via the Convention of Audio system and Heads of African Parliaments (CoSAP), we have now initiated a brand new and promising framework for interparliamentary cooperation throughout the continent to handle our shared challenges and construct higher networks for collaboration, progress, and prosperity. This effort ought to proceed in the perfect pursuits of our nation and continent.
18. Honourable colleagues, regardless of the appreciable investments we have now made to enhance our public infrastructure and the quite a few reforms we have now enacted to vary how we administer the federal government, our nation faces many vital challenges. These challenges have brought on lots of our fellow residents to marvel if the promise of democracy will ever turn into actual of their lives. Too lots of our younger folks have misplaced religion solely and are selecting in droves to hunt their fortunes and their futures in different lands. We’re shedding a few of our greatest and brightest, and if we don’t act now, the results of this loss will shortly turn into painfully evident.
19. How can we guarantee a wholesome, vigorous, rising economic system that gives alternatives for all who work exhausting to succeed by their labour and ingenuity? How can we shield our folks from the marauders and insurgents, the petty criminals and various villains who want to hurt them, whether or not for revenue or in service of different agendas? How can we restore religion in our younger folks in order that so lots of them not really feel like the one approach to obtain their greatest aspirations is to chase their fortunes in far-off, usually hostile lands? These are the essential questions all of us in authorities should reply or danger the unforgiving judgment of historical past. With every new day, we have now a possibility to make the exhausting decisions and take the mandatory actions to ensure our nation’s future. With every new day, we have now much less time to behave and a extra excellent obligation to behave rapidly.
20. As you’re all conscious, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, has nominated me to proceed serving the folks of Nigeria as Chief of Workers within the Presidency. I’m humbled by this new name to obligation, and I’m grateful to all of you who’ve reached out to me. I’ve lengthy believed that the final word finish of all political and governance efforts should be to realize measurable enhancements within the lives of the folks on whose behalf we maintain workplace. This basic perception within the accountability of presidency to be a drive for good has been my guiding gentle. It would proceed to be so in my new endeavours. I humbly ask on your prayers and help on this new chapter. I guarantee you that on this new position, I’ll work to make sure a cordial and productive relationship between the chief and legislative arms of presidency while respecting the independence and prerogatives of the legislature.
21. For every little thing, there’s a time and season, and we’re obligated every season to do probably the most and the perfect we are able to within the time we have now. It is a good rule for politics and for all times itself. The ninth Home of Representatives is ending, and the tenth will shortly be convened. All of us, these whose time in workplace is ending, and people for whom obligation continues, will face the judgment of historical past. I urge you to maintain this in thoughts and let your actions be guided by the need to make sure that you’re not discovered wanting by man or God within the last judgment. As a member and Speaker of this honourable Home, I’ve travelled the size of this nation, and I’ve been amazed by the expertise and capability, dogged dedication, and resilience of the Nigerian folks. The abundance of those qualities amongst our folks assures me that if authorities lives as much as its tasks, our individuals are able to do the remaining. So, we should reside as much as our tasks; there isn’t a different choice.
22. I need to categorical my honest appreciation to the civil servants and aides who’ve toiled tirelessly with me throughout my time right here; I thanks all most sincerely on your service. I need you to know that the roles you play in holding this establishment working are essential to reaching the form of nation we need. I urge you to please take pleasure in performing these roles credibly always. Attain for excellence in all you do, and resist the cynicism and pessimism that encourages laziness and ineptitude. I additionally want to thank our compatriots within the media for his or her devoted efforts in making certain that the train of state and financial energy is truthful and correct and in service of the better good. Loads of the work we do within the legislature wouldn’t be doable with out the help and partnerships of civil society organisations and growth companions. I need to particularly thank the Coverage and Authorized Advocacy Centre (PLAC), the Nigeria Bar Affiliation (NBA), Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and several other others who’ve confirmed worthy companions in progress.
23. For the higher a part of my grownup life, I’ve traversed the halls of this complicated, legislated from the chamber of this hallowed Home and constructed relationships with folks from throughout the nation, colleagues previous and current. I’ve met and established real bonds of brotherhood with a few of the most superb human beings, and collectively we have now shared experiences that strengthened these bonds. As I transition into my new position, a task not like the one I’ve had for these a few years, I ask on your help and greatest needs as we proceed to work collectively to advance the trigger and fulfil the promise of Nigeria. I’ll miss all of you, and I’ll miss this Home. I need you to relaxation assured that wherever the street takes me, I’ll carry you all in my coronary heart fondly as a result of you’ve got enriched my life in methods phrases alone can’t absolutely categorical.
24. Nigeria is an unfinished story, a protracted story of promise and peril, and our last chapters haven’t been written but. Some persist in believing that this grand nation is a sufferer of historical past, that our future has already lengthy been written, and that we can’t escape from it. I don’t subscribe to this view. Actually, I reject it solely. Certainly the world right now is being remade by profound and highly effective forces, and it might appear our future not lies inside our management. However we’re a proud and resilient folks with a limitless capability for excellence. All that we hope to be, we are able to. All that we need is inside attain. Our biggest successes as a nation will come once we work collectively throughout occasion traces, with out contemplating variations of tribe and tongue, faith and creed in the direction of the shared targets of our nationhood – peace and prosperity, fairness and justice for all.
25. As we carry this ninth Home of Representatives to an in depth, I’m proud to say that by our joint effort at nation-building, we have now ensured that the reason for Nigeria will lengthy endure and the desires of our nation’s founding fathers won’t die. We got here, we noticed, and whereas there’s a lot but to overcome, we have now finished our obligation to God and nation. I got here to this honourable Home twenty years in the past, full of hope for our nation’s future. I go away this workplace right now with hope unbroken, and my enthusiasm to serve stays undiminished. I’m extra assured that our greatest days are forward and that we are able to construct a future the place our nation is a beacon of excellence, a refuge and a spot of pleasure for all who salute our flag and swear allegiance to our structure. It is a future value preventing for; that is the long run I’ll by no means cease preventing for.
26. Thanks, goodbye, God bless you, and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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