Enugu — Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on the National Health Insurance Scheme, Hon. Pat Asadu, has said that the successful conclusion of the ongoing Constitutional and Electoral Reform exercise would go a long way in giving Nigerians more confidence in the nation's democracy, especially as the country prepares to go into another general election by 2011.

Speaking shortly after flagging-off the Pat Asadu Unity Cup football competition for Nsukka/Igboeze south federal constituency, the lawmaker said that Nigerians were looking forward to the quick conclusion of the process and therefore assured that the members of the National Assembly were determined to ensure that the process did not suffer further setbacks.

While noting that the lower chamber of the National Assembly remained committed to entrenching acceptable democratic principles as shown in the number of bills it has so far passed, the lawmaker said he has personally initiated six bills in the past two and half years, out of which two have been passed.

The bills so far passed, according to him, are: Bill for Banking Ethics, and the bill for the establishment of the Anambra River Basin Development Authority, while the four pending ones are: bill on paternity identification, bill for finger-print and firearms tracing centre, amendment bill on National Health Insurance Scheme and bill to make it compulsory for Ministries and Departments to buy only certified Made-in-Nigeria goods.

"I think, we have passed a lot of bills that have direct bearing on the lives of the people of this country and we believe that most of them, especially the ongoing Electoral Reform process would go a long way in giving people more confidence in this our democracy," he stated.

Giving further explanation on some of the bills, Hon Asadu expressed dismay that out of the 13 River Basin Authorities in the country, the south east zone only had one covering the five states, noting therefore that the establishment of another authority to cater for Anambra, Enugu and some parts of Ebonyi states would make a lot of impact and also go a long way in reducing the level of unemployment in the zone.

On the bill compelling ministries to patronise home-made goods, the legislator said until Nigerians begin to promote their product, it would be difficult to catch up with other developed economies, explaining that such countries like China , Malaysia and Japan no longer talk about importation because they devoted time in building and promoting their capital and consumer goods.

While commenting on the culture of poor budget implementation in the country, the lawmaker decried a situation where less than 40% of the budget is implemented stating that the House is presently planning a bill which would make it punishable for any government official to default in budget implementation.

"We are not lacking ideas in this country but because less than 40% of capital budget is usually executed, it ultimately makes negative impact on the economy," he said, adding that once the government is able to address the issue of poor road network, rail transportation and power generation and distribution, the problem of poverty in the system would have been effectively tackled.

The House of Representatives member who used the forum to also give account of his stewardship in the National Assembly stated that he has sunk a total of nine boreholes in his federal constituency, while 11 others are still in the pipeline, built a comprehensive health centre in his Igboeze-south council area and also established the Youth Engagement Scheme where youths are expected to acquire non-formal education by engaging in skill acquisition programmes, among others.