.jpeg)
– Joseph Edun, ABH Press
The Alexander Brown hall assembly has suffered a severe paucity of honourables in the newly inaugurated 2019/2020 legislative tenure. The tenure was inaugurated on Saturday, 29th of June with just 10 honourables out of a total of 38 expected honourables in the house. From this limited number of 10 honourables emerged Mr Francis Adegbaju as the speaker and other executives of the assembly unopposed.
According to the new speaker, the reasons for the abysmal turn out of Brownites to contest for floor representatives which makes them honourables to represent their floors in the assembly include the restriction of the 400 level class from contesting and lack of incentives for the honourables. According to Adegbaju, “the balloting for room came before the election thus those who had gotten rooms had no motivation to contest again and the issue of non availability of rooms in the hall to give floor representatives discouraged Brownites who wanted to contest”.
The bedspace given customarily to floor representatives in times past was an incentive for people to contest for the post. However, when this privilege was scrapped due to the alleged shortage of rooms, the assembly was the most hit as there was a sharp drop in the number of honourables in ABH legislature. Only five out of 25 elective floor representative positions were contested for while five departmental representatives out of eight representatives and one from the Press were present at the inauguration. “This few number of representatives in the house will affect the assembly as deliberations and debates will not be robust enough compared to when there is a full house”, said Adegbaju
Asked about what he will do to shore up the house and make sure every floor is represented, Adegbaju said “I will extend the eligibility to contest to the 400 level class as they have been given rooms and I’ve been speaking with Brownites including the 400 level class to contest. A bye election will come up after the next hall assembly meeting for Brownites to contest for floor representatives. The form will be out for about a week and honourables will then vote”.
Concerning the customary bedspace for the honourables, Adegbaju said “the Hall master has requested that we see him about provision of bedspace for honourables as he was not happy with the number of honourables he saw when he came for the inauguration”.