Describing the challenges of providing affordable housing to Nigerians as “Complex, demanding, tremendous and overwhelming,” the committee said Nigerians, drawn from the North and South regions, are looking up to the parliament to intervene and bring to an end the scourge associated with housing deficit in the country.
The Chairman of the Committee, Aminu Kurfi, disclosed this in Abuja on Monday, while addressing his colleagues at their inaugural meeting.
He called on his colleagues to show commitment and dedication to the task ahead, stressing that together, the committee would deliver on its mandate.
“In our endeavour to achieve these noble expectations, let me humbly notify my colleagues of the necessity to imbibe the culture of effective legislation, active partnership, efficient collaboration, relevant responsive capacity building, mutual collective responsibility, open door policy, and critical oversight functions.
“I call on us to deeply reflect on each of these managerial ethos and entrench them in our deep-seated minds so as to serve as our guiding principles in all our actions. We should strive to work as a team and engage our oversight partners not as administrative or political adversaries, but rather as professional colleagues and partners in progress.
“The common bonds that unite us with our partners in the oversight domains are denominated in our shared basic responsibility to serve our homeless citizens. Therefore, what unites us far outweighs the gimmicks of administrative or legislative differences.
“For these reasons and many others known to you, we must foster a virile spirit of unity of purpose between us and our partners, and we shall do so with a great sense of relative independence as unique legislators,” he said.
He also assured his colleagues of inclusive leadership through an open open-door policy, even as he called for support in the provision of useful ideas that could aid the committee in achieving its goals, adding that he will be decentralising responsibilities by creating sub-committees to handle various issues and report back to the main committee as and when due.
“In our determination to ensure that our country succeeds in achieving efficient and effective service delivery, I hereby wish to assure you of my decision to adopt a liberal, open-door policy wherein all of you as committee members, and indeed all other colleagues of the entire House shall feel free to consult with me on the Great Housing Agenda.
“In connection with this, it is my decision to decentralize the enormous functions of the committee by appointing 6
additional Assistant Committee Chairmen to represent the 6 existing geo-political zones in the country.
“These assistants will facilitate the jobs of the Deputy Chairmen, and shall be co-opted from colleagues of the House. In the days to come, sub-committees will be formed in order to carry out specific responsibilities under the various segments of our legislative, oversight and policy-making jurisdictions,” he added.
He further advocated teamwork and collaboration with all stakeholders and mutual respect for other colleagues who may not necessarily be members of the Housing Committee.
That said, the lawmaker called on ranking members within the committee to offer their wealth of experience and institutional memories with useful advice that will help the Committee in achieving its set goals.
Members in their interactions commended the Chairman for his liberal approach to the leadership of the committee, noting that decentralizing responsibilities by creating subcommittees is one important decision the chairman has made.
While pledging their support for the chairman in his quest to pilot the affairs of the committee, members also scored the chairman very high for his openness to suggestions and ideas on how to move the committee forward.
