By Emmanuel Ekon, President, E&E Solutions
UTC, Chattanooga, Tennessee
August 10, 2009

The Mayor, Chancellor, Right Honorable Speaker, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, honorable members, distinguished resource persons. It is a rare privilege for me to stand before this august gathering comprising accomplished politicians, academics and business leaders in this great city of Chattanooga to outline the issues that necessitated today's event. Even more striking for me is the fact that I am addressing the cream of very proactive legislators from my home state of Akwa Ibom who, in their own collective thinking have deemed it fit to attend this inaugural workshop as a way of sharpening their legislative abilities, and improve on their competence in the art of lawmaking.

Before I go further in my address, let me thank the authorities in this great University for agreeing to partner with us to bring an event of this magnitude to fruition. Let me also state here categorically that the speed at which the university accepted our proposal to provide the necessary resources and contacts to facilitate the hosting of this event is an added testimony to the determination of institutions in the United States to support emerging and fledgling democracies anywhere in the world.

Let me start however, by dousing prevailing misconceptions about an event like this. Normally, when legislators in their numbers jet out of Nigeria to attend a workshop of this magnitude, the tendency is always to dismiss such trips as a wasteful jamboree. But today's event is not part of such a jamboree. The decision to organize this workshop is a product of my visits to the state legislature to witness debates during sittings, and of course my interactions with friends who are members of the assembly.

Without mincing words, let me commend you all for the robustness of debates during your sittings. I also wish to note that the current Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly is gradually emerging as an arena type of legislature where societal differences and matters relating to public policies are hotly debated and resolved in a manner that competing interest groups making up the polity do not feel undermined.

And, unlike what is gradually becoming the norm in legislative business in some parts of Nigeria, your assembly has distinguished itself by not wielding the big stick of impeachment threat for pecuniary reasons. This of course, implies that there is an existing mutual respect and cooperation between the executive and the legislature, something recognized as a necessary ingredient in the success of the legislature in developing countries.

But during such trips, I also recognized the need to strengthen the internal capacities of the assembly not just in maintaining the momentum. I equally realized that the development challenges facing our state are such that individual and collective capacities of the house members had to be elevated to a point that issues tabled before them for debates are those that would contribute most importantly, to lifting the state out of its present 'civil service state' status. Perhaps therefore, the greatest challenge facing you today is to enact laws that would greatly enhance the great pioneering work of His Excellency, Obong Godswill Akpabio in pulling the state from the brinks of poverty and reducing ethnic tensions in the polity.

Honorable members and honored guests, I am not a political scientist but without preempting what our distinguished resource persons will teach today, scholars in that field of study will agree with me that the rise of most American State legislatures as effective organs right from the 60s was a product of huge investments in capacity building. This effort resulted in the strengthening of the committee systems and greater respect for expertise and specialization within the legislature. The implication of this experience for legislatures in a developing country like Nigeria which Akwa Ibom is a component, is the fact that, the richer the information environment surrounding the legislature, the greater the vibrancy of the member relationships with constituents and the flow of such sentiments into the overall running of government.

Before I conclude this brief remark, let me express my sincere gratitude to His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Godswill Akpabio for making it possible for the honorable members to attend this event. This is a mark of his interest not just in fostering executive-legislative understanding but, also in ensuring that the legislators are well-groomed in the performance of their constitutional duties. I equally wish to acknowledge the great cooperation I received from the leadership of the House led by its Speaker, Engineer Ignatius Edet in the bid to make this event a reality.

Finally, an important aspect of this event is the great opportunity to enjoy the beauty of Chattanooga, one of the serene, tourist-friendly cities in the United States. I hope you will all take advantage of its attractions and other exciting activities organized to make this event memorable. Once again, thank you for attending this workshop, and have a great time.

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