House of Representatives Speaker, the Rt Hon Tajudeen Abbas is to meet with an expert in legislative drafting, Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja and members of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners (ALDRAP) with a view to developing and publishing an electronic cross-checking publication, ‘LEGIS-CHECKER’.
The ICT-driven LEGIS-CHECKER is to assist the Nigerian legislature verify the authentic versions of bills and engender credibility, speed and seamlessness in legislative business, in line with the international best practices.
Blueprint Weekend learnt that the meeting with the legislative experts is to fine-tune ways and modalities to actualise law-making for development, especially at a time the country is going through traumatic challenges of development, including insecurity and hype in transportation and food problems.
A letter written to the Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas by ALDRAP sighted by our reporter, dated June 20, 2022, showed that the visioners are spurred by the desire to help make the lawmaking process easier for legislators and the critical segments of the Nigerian society, through openness and professionalism.
“According to the Acts Authentication Act, 1961, it is the duty of the Clerk to the National Assembly (and by implication, the Clerks to the House of Representatives and the Senate respectively) to undertake authentication to verify that the Bills submitted to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, are exact reflection of the Bills enacted by both Chambers of the National Assembly.
“However, in recent times, a worrisome trend is emerging wherein the versions of Bills submitted to the President contain provisions that are not consistent with the version enacted by both Chambers of the National Assembly.
“For example, the Speaker of the National Assembly recently alleged that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria signed a wrong version of the Electoral (Amendment) Bill, 2022 (now Electoral (Amendment) Act,2022,” the letter signed by the Chairman of ALDRAP, Hilary Onwe and Secretary, Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja, stated.
In a letter of recommendation written by Prof. Abiodun Amuda-Kannike, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Dean Faculty of Law, Kwara State University, Malete, to the Speaker, August 21, 2023, sighted by Blueprint Weekend, the erudite law expert advised positive action on the ICT-driven project to help scale up the activities of the Nigerian parliament.
Entitled “Recommendation for Improvement of the Quality of Bills Drafted and Enacted by the House of Representatives, National Assembly through the use of Information Technology (IT) tools designed by Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja and the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners (ALDRAP),” Prof Amuda-Kannike said “As a legislative drafting lawyer, I can advise that over 1,000 lawyers who are members of the Association -ALDRAP and staff of the Ministry of Justice, Ogun State have benefited immensely from attendance of an introduction to the use of Information Technology (IT) course facilitated by Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja since September 2021.”
