House Of Reps Installs Technology In Chamber To Aid Proceedings

Speaker of the House of Representative, Femi Gbajabiamila, says the house has installed technology in the chamber to aid proceedings in the house.

Gbajabiamila, who led journalists on inspection of the newly installed electronic system on Friday in Abuja said “it is a promise kept’’.

He said that the move became necessary because what it had before now in the chamber was obsolete for any legislative house.

“This is one of the things we promised we will do in the 9th assembly and we are happy that this can be found in any advanced democracy,’’ he said.

The speaker said that one of his promises was to adopt e-voting, adding that whatever that was needed during the proceeding had been provided by the system.

“With this system, we can do a lot of magic, I can even shut down your camera, especially those zooming on members eating groundnut during the proceeding,” he said.

Gbajabiamila said that the system provided capacity for members to research on the floor on any information or references they so desired, adding that e-attendance was also included to know the number of members present.

“We have e-attendance, so rather than signing manually on papers, you can do that through the system, your biodata is captured and mark attendance using your thumb,” he said.

Gbajabiamila said that foreigners who came to the chamber to witness proceedings without the knowledge of the English language could also switch to the language of their choice.

“The system has the capacity to translate to whatever language the foreigner speaks so that such individual can follow the discussion,” he said.

Rep. Benjamin Kalu, the spokesperson of the house said before now, members would have to carry hard copies of the nation’s constitution, house rule, and legislative agenda.

Kalu said members carrying hard copies of the house code of conduct and list of members “has stopped with the newly installed system, it is no longer obtainable as that era has gone.’’

He said that members would be trained on how to use the system, adding that “the system is user-friendly’’.

“We are going to have a session on resumption where every member will be trained by the technologists,” he said.

The system will be used for e-voting, provide order paper, documents and house rule among others.