When will National Assembly dare Buhari on pending bills?

 

President Muhammadu Buhari had signed six bills into law, three days to the New year, leaving quite a number on his table. All the pending bills have waited for more than the constitutionally accepted 30 days without presidential assent but the National Assembly has refused to exercise its powers by passing them into law with two third majority as ELEOJO IDACHABA observes in this report.

Penultimate Friday, December 29, 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari had signed six bills into law and they include the Niger Delta Development Commission(Establishment) Amendment Act, 2017, which now includes the gas producing and processing companies in the list of agencies that are contributing to the Niger Delta Development Commission. In addition, the president had signed the Federal Capital Appropriation Act, which now authorises the Federal Capital Territory Administration to legally and legitimately provide funds out of its Statutory Revenue Fund for recurrent and capital expenditure.

Similarly, Buhari had signed Federal Capital Territory Water Board Establishment Act which is charged with the responsibility for providing safe, adequate and affordable water supply services to the residents of Abuja. In addition, the National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (Establishment) Act, 2017 was signed into law.

Also, Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act, 2017 was amongst the six laws that have came into existence. Specifically, the Act stipulates that a person with a gunshot wound shall be received for immediate and adequate treatment by any hospital in Nigeria with or without initial monetary deposit.

Furthermore, a person with a gunshot wound shall not be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment or torture by any person or authority, including the police and other security agencies. Also, the president had signed the Anti-Torture Act, 2017, which makes comprehensive provisions for penalizing the acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, and prescribes penalties for the commission of such acts.

Some bills waiting assent
However, although the president was hailed for signing these bills, especially the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act, analysts had argued that there are more important bills which are still awaiting Buhari’s assent. Some of these bills include:
Disability Bill: Titled:“Bill to ensure full integration of persons with disabilities into the society and to establish a national Commission”, it was first passed by the sixth National Assembly but somehow it was not given presidential assent. Similarly, it was again passed by the seventh Assembly but it failed to secure the signature of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Again, in the life of the current Assembly, after all the harmonisations were done, it was passed in July 2016 to address the peculiar needs of People With Disabilities (PWD) but president Buhari is yet to sign it over one year after it was passed. In particular, the bill seeks to promote equal rights of persons living with disabilities by providing succour to them. In Nigeria, it is estimated that there are over 19 million people are living with one form of disability or another.

Child Rights Act Bill
Although this bill has been passed at the national level, only 16 out of the entire 36 states of the federation have domesticated it in their state assemblies. Consequently, the President cannot sign it into law. In 2003, Nigeria adopted it based on United Nation’s (UN) convention on the rights of the child.According to African Union report on Nigerian child, 6,000 children are in various detention centres across the country, out of which 20 percent of them are girls.

It is believed that if all the states in the county adopt this bill and it’s fully domesticated in the country, it will address some of the teething problems of juvenile deliquency in the society. It is aimed at curbing all forms of child abuse, street begging, child trafficking, the Almajiri menace in Northern Nigeria and all other harmful practices prejudicial to the welfare of children.

Peace Corps Bill
This is one of the bills passed by the current Assembly and even before becoming law, it has been raising controversy. Specifically, the bill was sponsored by Senator Bayero Nafada and it was passed in the Senate after the chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator David Umaru presented its report. It could be recalled that the bill had gone through the lower House and received its endorsement before it was finally passed in July 2017.
According to the sponsor of the bill, the aim of the proposed law is to provide jobs to the teeming youths of the country, by engaging them in conflict resolution and management in all the restive communities across the country. However, while celebrating the success of the bill, officers and men of the Corps were arrested by the personnel of the police and Department of State Security Service on the ground that it is an infamous organisation. The legal battles that followed gave judgments in favour of the Corps but analysts are of the opinion that all of these would have been avoided if the President had assented to it earlier.

The Chartered Institute of Statistician of Nigeria bill
This is a bill which was passed by the current Assembly and it seeks to regulate the practice of Statisticians like the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria(ICAN) is doing for the accountancy profession. As important as the bill is, for inexplicable reasons, it is yet to receive presidential assent.

What the law says
In line with the 1999 Constitution, “Where a bill is presented to the President for assent after it has been passed by both Houses of the National Assembly, he shall within 30 days signify that he assents or that he withdraws his assent. When the President withdraws his assent and the bill is again passed by each of the Houses by two third majority, the bill shall become law and the assent of the President shall no longer be required.”

Speaking to Blueprint Weekend on the issue, Barrister Festus Keyamo (SAN, )said there is no need crying over a matter that is clearly spelt out in the constitution. According to him, the law makers are not ready to exercise their full powers for reasons best known to them. He maintained that where there is no infringement in any proposed bill presented to the executive, it is incumbent on the President to append his signature in the interest of the country. However, he said the only condition is when certain clauses in the bill need clarification which ordinarily should be done within the 30 day window as provided in the constitution.

The question is, why is the National Assembly sleeping on its rights?

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