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{
    "id": 291740,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/291740/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 365,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Ethuro",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 158,
        "legal_name": "Ekwee David Ethuro",
        "slug": "ekwee-ethuro"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, we did not seek the votes of our people to come here and act in vain. We felt that we were competent enough to ask for those votes and our people made us proud by electing us to come to this House. Some of us were appointed Ministers in order to perform certain Executive positions. We congratulate them and wish them well. Some of us remained on the Back Bench for the purpose of providing oversight on the part of the Executive. Our experience so far is that the Executive is sleeping on the job but the impression that the Executive is creating out there is that it is Parliament which is sleeping on the job. Only yesterday morning, a Minister came here purportedly to answer a Question, only for that Minister to ask that the Question be referred to another Minister. Surely, is that a task that must be performed on the Floor of the House? Mr. Speaker, Sir, immediately a Question is filed, if the Minister to whom it has been directed feels that he or she is not the appropriate Minister to answer the Question, that Minister should either re-direct the Question to the appropriate Minister; or better still, on the basis of collective responsibility, the Minister should take the trouble of answering the Question. We pay Ministers a responsibility allowance, which Members on the Back Bench are not paid. They should take the trouble, as part of collective responsibility, to look for the information sought. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in the last month or so, we have asked the Leader of Government Business to respond to the issue of delayed responses to Ministerial Statements. The Leader of Government Business promised this House to come with a comprehensive statement on how to deal with the delayed ones and also to expedite the current ones. That Statement is yet to come and the Statements are still outstanding. Mr. Speaker, Sir, you will find that a Minister comes before this House and says that he or she was not there. Or, a substantive Minister will say the Question was supposed to have been answered by the Assistant Minister, as if the one who signs the answer is the Assistant Minister. So, for a substantive Minister to come to the House as if they are operating at cross purposes with the Assistant Minister--- We want you to find that there is complete chaos in the Government. Mr. Speaker, Sir, as I conclude---"
}