From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
In the last four years, no fewer than 2209 bills have been introduced by the House of Representatives, in the pursuit of its legislative agenda.The House, after its inauguration had enunciated a legislative agenda to guide its operations in the ninth assembly.
The 10 point Legislative agenda, which was subsequently amended, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, identifies the priorities of the Green chamber in healthcare delivery, education, economy, security, agriculture and food security, sustainable power, environment and climate change, human capital development and social investment, governance and reforms in the House.
An analysis of the bills indicated that 451 were passed, 13 rejected and five withdrawn. Similarly, 1197 bills are awaiting Second Reading; 581 referred to committees; 348 referred to the Committee of the Whole, while 308 are pending at the various committees. Relatedly, 106 bills are awaiting consideration at the Committee of the Whole, with 64 bills laid on the Table awaiting consideration.
Incidentally, nine of the 2209 bills, introduced in the Green chamber, as at the end of March 2023, were sponsored by the speaker, Femi Gbjabimiala. The legislation sponsored by Gbajabiamila were Physically-challenged (Empowerment) Bill, Students Loan (Access to Higher Education) Bill, Electric Power Sector Reform Act (Amendment) Bill and the Emergency Economic Stimulus Bill. Others were Presidential (Transition) Bill, 2019 – Employees (Unpaid Wages Prohibition) Bill, 2019, Federal Highways Act (Amendment) Bill, 2019; Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act (Amendment) Bill; Quarantine Act (Repeal and Reenactment) Bill and Nigeria Local Content Development and Enforcement Bill.
There were also bills that sought to amend the Armed Forces Act, Police Act, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps Act, National Security Agencies Act , as well as the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms, Light Weapons and Ammunition (Ratification and Enforcement) Bill, 2021 amongst other security related bills, as well as the Climate Change Bill.
Audacious bills
However, a few of these bills stand out, either because of their significance to the polity or the interest they generated. Also, while some of these bills eventually scaled through the lawmaking hurdles and were signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, others were either negatived, did not get the concurrence of the Senate or vetoed by the President.
Nevertheless, the very audacious bills that were introduced and passed by the House in the last four years included Petroleum Industry Act; Electoral Act 2022, constitution alteration bills, Deep Offshore Bill, as well as the Road Fund Bill, which is intended to create more avenue for funding of road projects across the country.
The House had considered 258 Constitution alteration bills, and eventually passed 68, while the National Assembly transmitted 44 to the states Houses of Assembly, which concurred with 35 of the bills.
President Muhammadu Buhari eventually signed 16 of the bills, including the legislations ensuring financial autonomy for the state legislature, state judiciary and mandating the President and governors submit the names of their ministerial and commissioner nominees to the legislature, within 60 days of taking oath of office, for confirmation.
Nevertheless, not a few consider the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and the Electoral Act as the most important bills passed by the House in the ninth assembly. This is understandable. The Petroleum Industry Bill, prior to its passage had been a reoccurring issue, in the parliament since 2003, when it was first introduced in the National Assembly.
Also, the Electoral Act which addressed issues like the electronic option of transmitting election results, funding of political parties, mode of primaries, campaign funding is generally perceived as a legislation geared towards improving the integrity of elections in the country. Similarly, the new electoral act stipulated that government appointees must resign their appointments before that could stand for nominations as party candidates for elective positions..
Recall that efforts by the 8th assembly to amend the Electoral Act were stalled by President Buhari, who repeatedly declined to assent to the amendments, giving different excuses.
Ironically, the members of the House were to be the first casualty of the new electoral law, as many of them lost out in their political parties’ nomination for the 2023 general elections.
The National Assembly had inadvertently failed to include statutory delegates, in new electoral act, as part of those to nominate political parties candidates. The implication is that only ad-hoc delegates were to nominate party candidates. Attempts by the parliament to correct what it considered an anomaly, after the assent to the Act by the President, was unsuccessful as the latter withheld assent from the fresh amendment done by the legislature to include statutory delegates in nomination of party candidates.
Gbajabiamila, while bemoaning the inability of most members of the House to get their party’s nomination, for the last general elections, had stated, “Many of our members lost because of the process, the process which we foresaw in the House of representatives. The delegate system which unfortunately is not what a delegate system is supposed to be.”
Power devolution bills
Pundits say the two power devolution bills, which moved electricity generation, transmission and distribution, as well as railway from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrence, would count among the most significant bills passed by the ninth House. The two legislations, which were passed as part of the last constitution review exercise have already been signed into law by President Buhari.
Pundits had hailed the two legislations, especially as many believed that they will help in addressing endless agitations for restructuring of the polity and devolution of more powers to the state, so as to make the exclusive legislative list lighter.
Recall that the eight assembly had rejected the bill seeking the devolution of power to the states, to the dismay of many Nigerians.
Dead on arrival
Among the audacious bills introduced in the House in the outgoing assembly, were bills to bar children of public officers from foreign schools and the bill to regulate medical tourism by public officials. However, the two bills, which were proposed by member representing Esan North East/ Esan South East Federal Constituency, Sergius Ogun, did not scale through second reading, as lawmakers argued that passing the bills will amount to an infringement on the rights of public officials.
Ogun, during debate on the education bill, had argued that restricting public officials from sending their children to school abroad would strengthen the country’s educational institutions to meet global standards; reduce cash flight and foreign exchange; reduce brain drain and institute good welfare conditions for indigenous academics amongst others.
According to him, “reports show that Ghana alone gets N160bn of Nigerian students’ funds, while the United Kingdom gets N80bn from Nigerian students. About 75,000 Nigerians are said to be studying in Ghana, paying over $1bn annually for tuition fees and upkeep.
“Most of these Nigerian foreign students are children/ward of public servants and political office holders who ostensibly cart away public funds to a private use. It is against this background that this bill is designed to regulate this practice and position our educational system for global competitiveness.”
Regardless, when the question was put for the bill to be read a second time, the lawmakers overwhelmingly shouted no.
Incidentally, the eight assembly had rejected both bills, when Ogun first presented them to the House.
Similarly, efforts by the House to enact legislations for local government autonomy and creation of state police did not scale through in the last constitution review exercise.
Also, five gender bills, which sought to create special legislative seats for women, expand the scope of citizenship by registration and provide for affirmative action for women in political party administration, as well as provide a quota for women in the ministerial and commissioner appointment in states were rejected by the House during constitution review exercise.