Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, the Senate President has assured that the members of the National Assembly will not abandon or relegate to the background, their legislative duties as they pursue their political ambition at the polls in 2019.
Saraki’s Special Assistant on Print Media, Chuks Okocha, made this known in a press statement, in response to the 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.
Saraki, while commenting on the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) and the Police Reform Bill, 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.
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.
source https://www.naijanews.com/2018/11/19/political-campaigns-wont-stop-nass-work-saraki-assures/
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