Afeez Kilani, a senior legislative aide to the senator representing Oyo North, Abdulfatai Buhari has formally declared to contest for the office of Chairman National Assembly Legislative Aides Forum (NASSLAF).
Kilani who is a lawyer declared his ambition on Monday at the National Assembly complex, Abuja.
The candidate hails from Saki area of Oyo State.
Kilani, in his declaration speech, assured that when elected as chairman of the association, he would use his professional experience to improve the welfare of legislative aides in the national assembly.
“I have been here since the year 2015. I got here as a legislative assistant, that is LA2 and because of the level of dedication, my boss promoted me to LA1 in 2019.
“Now, I am the SLA to the distinguished Senator Buhari Abdulfatai, who is a third term Senator in the Nigerian Senate.
“With this carrier progression, coupled with my experience in the National Assembly, at least I have run through the ranks of the aides of the National Assembly.
“I am in the best position to understand the yearnings and the needed welfare of the legislative aides because I have gone through the ranks of the legislative aides.
“We do not want a situation whereby an aide or a chairman will be elected and he will not understand what other legislative aides are going through.
Kilani also noted there was no need to elect a chairman that will not understand the pains, the feelings and yearnings of Legislative aides.
“I started my carrier as an SL2 but now I am the SLA. So, there is nothing that any legislative aide is going through that I don’t understand.
“With that understanding, I am in the best position pilot the affairs of the national Assembly legislative aides. If you give me your support, I am going to serve you better.”
On how he would be able to use diplomacy to settle disagreement with the management of the National Assembly when it arises, he said, “We are in the 21st century, and as a lawyer there is what is called alternative dispute resolution. In labour law, it is very important that confrontation, protests should be the last thing, should be on the last burner.
"The first thing is negotiation, good approach to issues, we are in a democratic era. It is when all that fails that we can adopt confrontation which we are not going to even adopt.
“I know with my skills as a lawyer for more than 11 years of experience, it is not going to be difficult for me to meet with management to convince them of the reason why they should take care of us.”
Chairman of the Southwest National Assembly Legislative Forum, Ogumawola Ebeneza endorsed the candidacy of Kilani.
The South-west chairman said the region has decided to support Kilani because he is capable for the position.
“As you can see the ovation is loud because we have gone through rigorous screening and Southwest as a leading zone when it comes to affairs of the NASSLAF we have taken everything into consideration and we decided one voice to queue behind our own Barr. Hafiz Kelani as our candidate” he said.
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