Jesse Ese, Yenagoa
The House Committee on Tourism of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly,
in conjunction with the Ministry of Tourism, has put the Bayelsa State
Tourism Development and Hotel Licensing Agency Bill, 2013, on public
hearing.
This is done with a view of taking into considerations the memoranda
of the public so that the bill could be debated on the floor of the
house with interest of the public in mind before signing it into law.
Speaking during the public hearing at the Ijaw House in Yenagoa today,
the Chairman of the House Committee on Tourism, Hon. (Barr) Ebamogha
Emperor, stated that the House of Assembly will henceforth subject all
bills to public scrutiny before enacting them into law.
He noted that hotels in Bayelsa State have no laws regulating their
operations, that there is need to enact the bill so that hotels would
be subjected to a form of control in the state.
He added that they came up with the idea of public hearing so that
experts in the hotel business would scrutinize the bill and make known
their suggestions in areas that need to be amended, so that the
committee could stand a better chance of defending the bill in the
house.
In his part, Hon. Daniel Igali, who is also a member of the committee,
stated that public hearing has been the problem of the Bayelsa State
House of Assembly, that people have always been accusing them of not
seeking the opinion of the public before enacting bills.
He advised the public to state their name and the organization they
represent and also make their position known so that it would be easy
for them to make the right emphasis when defending the bill.
“I hope this trend is going to continue. This is important because if
you don’t give us your views and the assembly makes this bill a law,
you will find yourself guilty of some of the laws,” he added.
