Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology
and one of the leading contestants for the Senate Presidency in the 8th Senate,
Senator Bukola Saraki has faulted the passage of 46 bills in less than ten
minutes.
Senator Bokola Saraki
But the Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and
Business, Senator Ita Enang has said that there was nothing wrong in
legislative reciprocity as according to him, the House of Representatives
followed all the necessary legislative procedures in the passage of the bills.
Senator Enang also said that the House of
Representatives also concurred to the bills sent to it from the Senate,
stressing that adopting legislative reciprocity had caused no injury.
“There are times you apply legislative dexterity to
solve legislative problem,” he stated
Saraki, in a statement in Abuja, to mark the end of
the Seventh Senate, decried the passage of 46 bills in 10 minutes.
According to him, “The new Senate must now learn and
show that it has the vigour and drive to work harder through enriched
deliberations to pass important bills that form the core of its agenda rather
than be seen as a last minute assembly where important bills are rolled through
the process in 10 minutes.’’
“My view is that it was important that we pass those
laws but I have my reservations on the railroading of over 46 bills in 10
minutes. History will not be too kind to us on this count.
“This is made even a little steeper by the commentary
that must follow that after another four years, the National Assembly was not
able to pass such watershed bills like the PIB, the Federal Competition Bill
and the NOSDRA Bill amongst many other bills that have the regulatory potential
of changing the way our economy operates.”
He also faulted the poor handling of the ill-fated
Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment exercise by the leadership of the
Seventh Senate, expressing regret that the the senate did not act on the report
of the probe instituted by the Senate on the unfortunate incident during which
many young Nigerians lost their lives.
He said, “I remember sadly, the events of some of our
youths who went to seek employment from government and lost their lives,
needlessly, in a government arranged employment test.
“We missed at this occasion, the opportunity of that
ill-fated occasion to show leadership and properly set a new standard of
responsibility in the conduct and attitude of our public office-holders.”
Saraki therefore urged the incoming Eighth Senate to
develop and promote a coherent national agenda which it would pursue in order
to support and the direction of Nigerians and the government.
He, however, noted that the Seventh Senate had done
well in a number of areas but would also have done better.
He said, “We have to tell ourselves the home truth; we
have missed the cut on the level of our effectiveness, especially so with
regards to amending laws that impact on the revenues and expenditures of the
state, budget reforms, infrastructure financing and deployment, accountability
instruments and agency laws.
“The Senate, also, has not carried its integrity far
enough to secure its independence which may have emboldened the police on the
20th of November 2014 to invade the precincts of the Assembly, desecrating it
in a manner never seen before within the precincts of the Assembly.
“The Seventh National Assembly allowed itself to be
enmeshed in fights and political wars that only served selfish purposes and
party politics with little general public good.
“The result of which was the further dilution of
public perception of the Assembly and the weakening of its general influence
and authority.”
The senator explained that one critical role that the
parliament, all over the world is expected to play is the role of balancing
power and checking that the executive is not allowed to use its overbearing
influence to deny citizens their rights and limit their freedoms.
He said, “We have had several opportunities to cause
the executive to implement our resolutions and ensure full implementation of
budgets but never took any.
“As a policy defining institution, the Seventh
Assembly did not do much to advance responsible governance.’’
In the last four years, Sarakicontinued, the Senate
had had far reaching oversight investigations to secure the constitutional
directives of government, protection of rights and freedoms, reduce corruption,
and engender accountability in public office.
Some of the watershed moments of the last Senate, he
added, included the investigation into the fuel subsidy management regime which
led to the exposure of monumental corruption in the running of the regime which
may have caused Nigeria over one trillion naira due to over invoicing and criminal
collusion.
Saraki said, “Looking back, we can pat ourselves on
the back in the way we had handled some of the thorny moments but we must also
look back and agree that in certain respects we need the incoming Senate to
make amends.
“Why Nigerians all over the country and beyond still
question the effectiveness and efficiency of the National Assembly as a
legislative body that can help deliver democratic dividend and rule of law in
Nigerian today is because in their assessment, the activities of the National
Assembly has not fully converged to their expectations.
“Nigerians are unanimous in pointing to the fact that
the level of accountability, transparency, certainty, competitiveness,
continuous improvement, efficiency, innovation, integration, evidence-based
decision-making at the National Assembly still leaves much to be desired.”
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