Former lawmakers in the Cross River State House of Assembly have appealed to the Speaker to devise ways to cater for their welfare, especially health bills.
They told their successors in the Assembly that, if their request was attended to, they, too, would benefit when they were no longer serving lawmakers like them.
Okon Ephraim, who once represented Calabar South 1, spoke on behalf of others who were invited to attend the special plenary session of the 10th Assembly, headed by Speaker Elvert Ayambem, convened to celebrate the second year of the assembly.
Ephraim said, “We congratulate you all for the impact you have made, which is better than our time. But we call on you to see that you accommodate health bills and, of course, other welfare issues.
“Tomorrow you, too, will also be a visitor to this Assembly where we held sway during our time. So a time will come in the future that you will be in our situation.”
In his address earlier, where he recounted his feats and several achievements in two years, the Speaker, Elvert Ayambem, assured that the welfare of the assembly’s honourable members and staff will continue to be a top priority and of great attention.
He assured that requests of the former members will be looked into, especially as they usually rely on them for their legislative experiences.
Soliciting continued cooperation from all the members and staff to sustain a viable House, Ayambem disclosed that, during the year under review, Cross River lawmakers were sponsored to attend workshops in Lagos and Abuja, while staff of the Assembly also received in-house training on capacity building.
He disclosed further that two staff members were recently trained at the University of Calabar on E-Governance by the Korean Government, in partnership with the federal and state Ministries of Science, Innovation and Technology.
During the period, Ayambem said they passed 39 bills, nine of which were undergoing different stages of reading, and that Governor Bassey Otu has already assented to several of them.
