World enews: Nigerian Lawmakers At War As House Of Reps Ignores Senate Bills

The House of Representatives and the Senate have again clashed as they engaged in a battle of supremacy over Bills sent for concurrence.

On Tuesday, the two Bills received by the House for Concurrence from the Senate, were both stepped down.

One is a Bill for an Act to Establish Chartered Institute of Directors of Nigeria to Provide Professional Training to Directors and Promote Effective Governance, Public Accountability and Professional Efficiency.

The other is a Bill for an Act to provide for the Establishment of Federal University of Agriculture and Technology, at Aboh, Delta State.

However, the two Bills were ignored by members of the House of Representatives in protest against the alleged abandonment of bills from the House by the Senate.

According to the House, about 69 Bills passed by the House were awaiting concurrence by Senate.

Meanwhile, a Delta State member of the House, Osai Osai, stated that the two Bills should be given concurrence, adding that if there was any grey area to be sorted with the Senate, the principal officers should handle such.

According to him, stopping Senate’s Bill will amount to building a clash that is not needed in a democracy and trying to stop the enactment of law that is within the powers of the lawmakers will not augur well.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, in his reactions, decried the refusal of the Senate to give concurrence to Bills sent to it by the House.

Gbajabiamila said while responding to Osai’s opinion that, “If you have a Bill you have laboured hard to work on and it has been in the Senate for six months, you won’t be saying what you are saying.

“Bills that come to this House from the Senate for concurrence should be given the same treatment as is done in the Senate.

“As I speak we have only four Bills from the Senate awaiting concurrence in the House, while we have 69 Bills awaiting concurrence in the Senate.’’

The Speaker further maintained that stepping down the Bills could not cause a rift between the two legislatures.

He said that the issue could be due to administrative challenges and ordered the Clerk of the House to liaise with the Clerk of the Senate to resolve the logjam, PM News.

Recall that on June 9, 2021, The House had for the third time within four months, accused the Senate of not concurring with bills transmitted to it, threatening to reciprocate by not passing bills from the other chamber.

The House was to consider among others, ‘A Bill for an Act to amend the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria Act, No. 2, 2019 to extend the Tenure of the Resolution Cost Fund.

Ado-Doguwa had urged the lawmakers to pass the Senate bill.

However, the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, said, “Leader of the House; please, I think you should talk to the Leader of the Senate that many bills are outstanding from the House in the Senate that requires the same mutual concurrence. And we will begin to study it. That is your responsibility.”