National Assembly on Tuesday called for a distinct salary structure for legislative aides to the 469 federal lawmakers in both the Senate and House of Representatives, totaling over 300,000 aides.
It also advocated protection of political appointees from arbitrary termination of appointments by their principals.
Speaking at a three-day capacity-building training for legislative aides at the A-Class Event Centre, the Clerk to the National Assembly, Barrister Kamoru Ogunlana, said addressing these challenges would enhance the performance of aides and, by extension, improve the output of federal lawmakers.
He noted that although legislative aides are political appointees, their conditions of service remain tied to the template of career civil servants, which does not reflect their peculiar needs.
Barrister Kamoru Ogunlana argued that unlike the career civil servant, your appointments do not guarantee job security, tenure is largely dependent on your principals, and ranking is often not based on qualifications or competence.
The Clark further said there is currently no comprehensive law or guidelines clearly defining the duties and responsibilities of the various cadres of Legislative Aides.
“This leaves gaps that sometimes expose you to arbitrary decisions and unfair treatment.,”
He assured that the present management believes it is time to address these systemic issues, thereby advocating that the National Assembly Service Commission and the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission should consider developing a distinct salary structure and conditions of service that reflect the unique nature of your work.
“We also believe the qualifications for appointments should be reviewed to attract competent and experienced personnel. Equally important is the need for mechanisms to prevent arbitrary termination of appointments by principals”
In his remarks at the training organized by the National Assembly in collaboration with Research Enterprise Systems (RES), the Chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC), Saviour Enyiekere, urged legislative aides to be more knowledgeable and skillful than their principals in order to enhance robust legislative outputs at both chambers of the National Assembly.
Categories of legislative aides attending the three-day event include the Chiefs of Staff to the four Presiding Officers in NASS, their Special Advisers, Senior Legislative Aides (SLAs) to federal lawmakers, among others.
Bashir M
