House of Reps Goes Digital; As Gbajabiamila Inspects E-Parliament Facilities |The Source

By Akinwale Kasali

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, has given the 9th Assembly something to cheer about.

The House of Representatives is set for the electronic conduct of its legislative activities on the floor of the chamber when it reconvenes on Tuesday. The Speaker made the disclosure on Friday while on an inspection of the newly installed digital system accompanied by the media.

The Speaker said that over time, legislative activities were often hindered by obsolete public address system, which affected the flow at plenary.

He said: “This is one of the things we promised to do in the 9th Assembly. I’m glad we’ve been able to deliver that within a year.

“We promised e-voting, the chamber is now more or less paperless, all the documents you need for legislative business are uploaded.

“We have the Constitution, House Rules, Code of Conduct, Legislative Agenda, Order Papers on daily basis, Motions, everything is uploaded.

You find this anywhere in the world, in the most advanced democracies.

“The system is very advanced, it has the capacity for members to research on the spot, on the floor. If there’s an issue that comes up on the floor, there’s a search engine that is dedicated only for that purpose and you can quickly research and reference on the spot.

The Speaker also revealed that the E-Parliament Facilities is connected to the registration process, in other to have e-attendance, rather than signing in manually, now, you can use your thumb and your attendance is captured when you come in.

On the audio system of the new platform, Gbajabiamila said each system on each seat has its speaker that would be deactivated to enable a louder and sharper sound system that has been connected to the surround system.

This has the capacity for members to bring in and use their own earplugs, just like we see in most legislative houses.