What Saraki told visiting British envoy, Harriet Thompson
President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on Monday assured
Nigerians that legislative duties in the National Assembly would not be
relegated to the background in view of the commencement of the 2019
electioneering.
Saraki, according to a statement by his Special Assistant on Print
Media, Chuks Okocha, in Abuja, made the assertion while responding to
comments by the Acting British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Harriet
Thompson, who visited him at the National Assembly.
Saraki said, “It is very important to emphasise that as far as we are
concerned, we will follow through on the key Bills. We will continue to
work on these Bills, because they are priorities to the 8th National
Assembly — these are Bills that were initiated by the legislative arm of
government.
“For example, the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) has never
gotten this far in its history. However, both Chambers of the National
Assembly worked very hard to come up with a unified position and sent it
to the Executive. Unfortunately, it came back with some minor issues
that we feel should not have affected the progress of the Bill. These
were issues that could have been easily addressed.
“The two arms of government must see that the most important thing is
for us to get the PIGB going because it has a lot of impact on the
industry in terms of transparency, accountability and ensuring that the
revenues of the petroleum sector are well managed.
“As you know, we have also gone far with the fiscal and host community
components of the Bill, because it came about as a result of constant
engagement with stakeholders in the industry. However, with this setback
by the Executive, this has slowed down the process a little,” the
Senate President said.
Speaking on the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) and the Police
Reform Bill, Saraki said that the CAMA Bill was only waiting for the
Concurrence Committee of both Houses of the National Assembly to finish
its work, while the Police Reform Bill would soon be subjected to Public
Hearing.
“I am hopeful that the CAMA will soon pass in the House of
Representatives too. On the Police Reform Bill, we are hoping to have a
public hearing very soon. As you know, this reform Bill came about as an
immediate response by parliament to the increased reports of insecurity
across the country.
“We took the decision to evaluate the security situation in the country,
particularly the police, to see how best we could make the institution
more effective and efficient. Unfortunately, as we work towards these
reforms of the police, I must be honest, many of the actions of the
police are seen to be quite partisan.
“We are hoping that the new Chairman of the Senate Committee on Police
Affairs will set the ball rolling on this immediately. It is important
that the Executive too must see the importance of this Bill so that we
can work together and improve the efficiency and the level of Police
performance,” Saraki said.
On the Discrimination Against persons with Disabilities Bill, the Senate
President stated that the Bill would soon be on its way to the
President for assent; while emphasising that he was still hopeful that
the Gender Bill would be passed before the end of the 8th Assembly.
“On the Electoral Bill, we have passed that and sent it to the
Executive. We have addressed all the concerns raised by Mr. President
because we believe that that Bill is important to improve the quality of
our elections and our electoral process. We want an electoral process
that will make our elections more credible. Therefore, I hope that the
interest of the country should be the determining factor in the decision
to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
“Despite the fact that campaigns have started, all these important Bills
will still receive the desired attention from us to ensure that
governance does not suffer and we can still make the lives of all
Nigerians better,” the President of the Senate stated.
Earlier, the Acting British High Commissioner had advised against
relegating legislative duties to the background with the onset of
campaigns for the 2019 general elections in the country.
“There are quite a number of Bills in which we have key interests
because we firmly believe that these Bills are in the interest of the
Nigerian people both in terms of their rights and in terms of their
opportunities for economic development,” Thompson said.
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