NASS underscores importance of hansard/verbatim reporters

By Haruna Salami

The Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Barr. Kamoru Ogunlana has underscored the importance of Hansard/Verbatim reporters in parliamentary business despite technological advancement.
He stated this Tuesday at the Annual National Delegates Conference of Association of Hansard/Verbatim reporters of Nigeria held at the National Assembly, Abuja.
The CNA who was represented by Dr. Yahaya Dan-Zaria, the Clerk of the House of Representatives said before this age of technology, without the Hansard reporters, we would not be able to capture the essence of parliamentary business in the votes and proceedings of the parliament.
According to him “every time there is an argument on a particular matter, when a member says that he has not said something, it is only the Hansard reporters that will clear that thing, because they copy, they record things verbatim, but these days with this technology some machines transcribe in the way that you cannot even explain”.
Dr. Dan-Zaria said he has been to British parliament where their mics automatically transcribe the submissions of members of the parliament in such a way that they don’t only transcribe, but they are ready to print.
However, despite technology, he said Hansard reporters are still very relevant when you come to the issue of language barrier, adding “except you develop something that understand every language”.