1st June, 2010
The Lagos State House of Assembly has given the assurance that it will continue to carry out its deliberations on Thursdays in Yoruba Language.
The Majority Leader of the House, Mr. Kolawole Taiwo, gave the assurance in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Ikeja.
Taiwo was reacting to speculations that the assembly was not serious with deliberating in Yoruba, and may dump the idea soon.
A source in the House, had told NAN on condition of anonymity that the leadership of the assembly was not serious about the use of the language.
However, Taiwo told NAN that the assembly had put adequate measures in place to sustain deliberations in vernacular every Thursday.
He said one of the measures was the planned training of the House members and legislative workers on the use of the language.
The majority leader could not disclose when the training would be done, but said the Clerk of the House, Mr. Adewale Olatunji, would determine that.
He said the House was still at a learning stage with the use of vernacular for deliberations.
“If we have issues that are germane to us, we revert to English. We do that to give lawmakers the opportunity to discuss freely, especially when the report was prepared in English.
“It is so difficult translating reports into Yoruba but we are working on it,†he said.
Taiwo noted that the assembly had passed a supplementary budget, using the Yoruba Language.
NAN reports that the House usually reverts to the use of English whenever it had a serious issue for debate during Thursday plenary sessions.
Also, bills were hardly listed on the assembly’s order paper for debate on Thursdays.