Angered by the seeming lack of interest in assenting
to bills and implementing critical legislative resolutions, the
National Assembly has threatened to invoke its powers to override such
executive decisions.Section 58(5) of the 1999 Constitution as amended
provides for a 30-day period during which the President is expected to
assent a bill passed by the National Assembly.
After the period, the legislative arm can invoke the power of veto to override the President on the bill. Briefing journalists on the first anniversary of the House of Representatives yesterday, Chairman, Rules and Business, Hon. Albert Sam-Tsokwa, lamented the executive laxity in the implementation of House resolutions despite the numerous challenges which the resolutions would have tackled, if implemented.
“More than 10 bills were returned at the end of last session. This has made us to start afresh and it is not our fault but because someone refused to do his work.
The constitution has given us the powers to override his (president) assent after 30 days of forwarding a bill to him.“But the beauty of any power is how sparingly you use it.
That is why we do not want to use it because people would say we are confronting the executive. However, if it persists we may have no option but to do so,” he stated.He, however, promised that the House would con-tinue to pass new resolutions.
Sam-Tsokwa said that the low implementation of resolutions was surprising because it was through the resolutions of the National Assembly that President Goodluck Jonathan transmuted from acting to a substantive President.
The lawmaker, however, condemned the decision of some committees to rely on ministries and other agen-cies of government for sponsoring their oversight activities.
He said that it was wrong for lawmakers going on oversight assignments to depend on the logistics provided by the ministry or organisations they were assessing.
According to him, the House received a total of 273 bills, most of which are in the second reading stage.
He also explained that the lawmakers received 278 motions and resolutions and 178 petitions.
Sam-Tsokwa said that 32 bills were passed in the last 12 months.
Also, the Senate yesterday said that it would not hesitate to veto President Jonathan if he withheld presidential assent to any bill sent to him by the present National Assembly.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, however, noted that to avoid executive/legislative rift, the Senate had resolved to ensure that bills sent to the President, “after a rigorous process leading to their passage, are assented to.”
Enang explained that the 7th National Assembly was yet to exercise the con-stitutional power of veto on some of the unsigned bills because they were passed by the 6th National Assembly.
The Senate said it was constrained because of “effusion of time,” noting that the Assembly that passed those bills had been dissolved, Enang said this yesterday while briefing Senate correspondents on the activities of the upper chamber at the end of its first year tenure.
He, however, said because the bills were promulgated by the 6th National Assembly, the present lawmakers were constrained by the constitution and, therefore, could not challenge the President on them.
This explanation was against the recent buck-passing between the execu-tive and members of the National Assembly over the backlog of bills awaiting the President’s assent.
Enang said: “Most of the bills that assent are with-held are bills that were passed by the 6th Senate. And you will agree with me that the 6th National Assembly was dissolved on June 5, 2011 by proclamation of Mr. President and by effusion of time.
“Therefore, the Assembly that passed that bill stood dissolved and a newly inaugurated 7th National Assembly under different oath came to life on June 6, 2011 and cannot continue where the bills or action that were commenced by the previous Assembly because the life of that legislature had come to an end.
“It is not appropriate for us to call up those bills and bring them to the floor of the Senate or House of Representatives and vote on them for the purpose of voting, seeing whether we would have two-thirds ma-jority of members present for the purpose of getting those bills passed.
“The constitution has constrained us; the constitution does not allow us and we cannot do it in law because it is not the bills that were passed by the 7th Assembly.”
In his assessment of the first year of the 7th Natioal Assembly, Enang said: “The 7th Senate has recorded tremendous achieve-ments since inauguration.
“The Senate has for a number of times mediated between the Labour and the Federal Government over what could have re-sulted in industrial unrest.
“Between June 2011 and now, a total of 178 bills have been deliberated on, out of which 16 are executive bills, while the rest are members’ bills.
“Out of these 178, 122 bills are at the first read-ing stage while 19 read a second time and referred to the relevant committees. “Twenty-six others are awaiting publication in the journal, while nine were withdrawn for representa-tion by sponsors.”
According to him, the upper chamber has so far passed 21 bills and 48 reso-lutions, including those on the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, fuel subsidy probe and pension management probe.
The 7th Senate also confirmed Justice Dahiru Musdapher’s appointment as Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN; Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde as Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, as Chairman; members of Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA, and the confirmation of appointment of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Deputy Governor, Dr. (Mrs.) Sara Omotunde Alade.
The Senate has since proceeded on a break to resume legislative activities on June 19.
The House has also vowed to press on with its proposal to review the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Act, with a view to curtailing the powers of the apex bank; a proposal which has long sparked an intense debate across country and disciplines.
The Lower Chamber of the National Assembly said members were ready to pass the CBN amendment Bill in order to break the apex bank’s unfettered autonomy to create room for adequate legislative oversight and separation of powers.
Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, Sam-Tsokwa said the constitution is clear on the mandate of the legislature and execu-tive, hence the House is making efforts to ensure that all organs of govern-ment conform to the dic-tates of the constitution.
According to him, “The CBN is a creation of the statute and the CBN Act is undergoing review and amendment. Efforts are being made to ensure that no agency of government budgets and implements with-out recourse to the relevant committees of the House.”
Corroborating Sam-Tsokwa’s position, Chair-man, Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Hon. Muraino Ajibola confirmed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF, that were hitherto not subjecting their budgets to legislative scrutiny did so this year.
The CBN amendment bill has generated a lot of controversies.
After the period, the legislative arm can invoke the power of veto to override the President on the bill. Briefing journalists on the first anniversary of the House of Representatives yesterday, Chairman, Rules and Business, Hon. Albert Sam-Tsokwa, lamented the executive laxity in the implementation of House resolutions despite the numerous challenges which the resolutions would have tackled, if implemented.
“More than 10 bills were returned at the end of last session. This has made us to start afresh and it is not our fault but because someone refused to do his work.
The constitution has given us the powers to override his (president) assent after 30 days of forwarding a bill to him.“But the beauty of any power is how sparingly you use it.
That is why we do not want to use it because people would say we are confronting the executive. However, if it persists we may have no option but to do so,” he stated.He, however, promised that the House would con-tinue to pass new resolutions.
Sam-Tsokwa said that the low implementation of resolutions was surprising because it was through the resolutions of the National Assembly that President Goodluck Jonathan transmuted from acting to a substantive President.
The lawmaker, however, condemned the decision of some committees to rely on ministries and other agen-cies of government for sponsoring their oversight activities.
He said that it was wrong for lawmakers going on oversight assignments to depend on the logistics provided by the ministry or organisations they were assessing.
According to him, the House received a total of 273 bills, most of which are in the second reading stage.
He also explained that the lawmakers received 278 motions and resolutions and 178 petitions.
Sam-Tsokwa said that 32 bills were passed in the last 12 months.
Also, the Senate yesterday said that it would not hesitate to veto President Jonathan if he withheld presidential assent to any bill sent to him by the present National Assembly.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, however, noted that to avoid executive/legislative rift, the Senate had resolved to ensure that bills sent to the President, “after a rigorous process leading to their passage, are assented to.”
Enang explained that the 7th National Assembly was yet to exercise the con-stitutional power of veto on some of the unsigned bills because they were passed by the 6th National Assembly.
The Senate said it was constrained because of “effusion of time,” noting that the Assembly that passed those bills had been dissolved, Enang said this yesterday while briefing Senate correspondents on the activities of the upper chamber at the end of its first year tenure.
He, however, said because the bills were promulgated by the 6th National Assembly, the present lawmakers were constrained by the constitution and, therefore, could not challenge the President on them.
This explanation was against the recent buck-passing between the execu-tive and members of the National Assembly over the backlog of bills awaiting the President’s assent.
Enang said: “Most of the bills that assent are with-held are bills that were passed by the 6th Senate. And you will agree with me that the 6th National Assembly was dissolved on June 5, 2011 by proclamation of Mr. President and by effusion of time.
“Therefore, the Assembly that passed that bill stood dissolved and a newly inaugurated 7th National Assembly under different oath came to life on June 6, 2011 and cannot continue where the bills or action that were commenced by the previous Assembly because the life of that legislature had come to an end.
“It is not appropriate for us to call up those bills and bring them to the floor of the Senate or House of Representatives and vote on them for the purpose of voting, seeing whether we would have two-thirds ma-jority of members present for the purpose of getting those bills passed.
“The constitution has constrained us; the constitution does not allow us and we cannot do it in law because it is not the bills that were passed by the 7th Assembly.”
In his assessment of the first year of the 7th Natioal Assembly, Enang said: “The 7th Senate has recorded tremendous achieve-ments since inauguration.
“The Senate has for a number of times mediated between the Labour and the Federal Government over what could have re-sulted in industrial unrest.
“Between June 2011 and now, a total of 178 bills have been deliberated on, out of which 16 are executive bills, while the rest are members’ bills.
“Out of these 178, 122 bills are at the first read-ing stage while 19 read a second time and referred to the relevant committees. “Twenty-six others are awaiting publication in the journal, while nine were withdrawn for representa-tion by sponsors.”
According to him, the upper chamber has so far passed 21 bills and 48 reso-lutions, including those on the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, fuel subsidy probe and pension management probe.
The 7th Senate also confirmed Justice Dahiru Musdapher’s appointment as Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN; Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde as Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, as Chairman; members of Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA, and the confirmation of appointment of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Deputy Governor, Dr. (Mrs.) Sara Omotunde Alade.
The Senate has since proceeded on a break to resume legislative activities on June 19.
The House has also vowed to press on with its proposal to review the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Act, with a view to curtailing the powers of the apex bank; a proposal which has long sparked an intense debate across country and disciplines.
The Lower Chamber of the National Assembly said members were ready to pass the CBN amendment Bill in order to break the apex bank’s unfettered autonomy to create room for adequate legislative oversight and separation of powers.
Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, Sam-Tsokwa said the constitution is clear on the mandate of the legislature and execu-tive, hence the House is making efforts to ensure that all organs of govern-ment conform to the dic-tates of the constitution.
According to him, “The CBN is a creation of the statute and the CBN Act is undergoing review and amendment. Efforts are being made to ensure that no agency of government budgets and implements with-out recourse to the relevant committees of the House.”
Corroborating Sam-Tsokwa’s position, Chair-man, Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Hon. Muraino Ajibola confirmed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF, that were hitherto not subjecting their budgets to legislative scrutiny did so this year.
The CBN amendment bill has generated a lot of controversies.
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