Nigeria’s House of Representatives has resolved to suspend further consideration of bills from their counterparts in the Senate, citing persistent delays in the red chamber’s concurrence to its related legislation.
The lawmakers at Wednesday’s plenary accused the Senate of deliberately stalling the legislative process by failing to act on about 146 bills passed by the House, including several others sponsored by House Speaker, Dr. Tajudeen Abbas.
Lawmakers in their arguments noted that the longstanding concern also plagued the 9th Assembly, following an observation by Minority Leader Kingsley Chinda, who argued that while the House regularly considers Senate bills, the reverse has not been the case.
On his part, House Speaker Abbas lamented the situation where 146 bills have been left unattended by the Senate, stressing that the lopsided legislative cooperation undermines the effectiveness of the National Assembly.
Although the Speaker tried to get members to consider a bill for concurrence from the Senate, which resulted in the debate, members unanimously insisted they would no longer process Senate bills until there is clear commitment from their colleagues in the red chamber to address the imbalance.
With insistence of members to stop consideration of Senate bills, the Speaker ruled that henceforth, unless the House receives considerable assurance from the Senate, they will no longer consider their bills.
The process for law making stipulates that for a bill to be transmitted to the President for assent, it must have been passed by both chambers of the National Assembly.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
