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‘Legislators Should Enlighten Nigerians On Legislative Duties

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The spokesman for the 2020 National Legislative Conference, Amb. Chibuzor Okereke, says the Legislative Arm of Government must continue to engage in national conversations to sensitise Nigerians to its function, powers and deliverables.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen in Abuja, Okereke, said that the Legislature, which is the youngest of the three Arms of Government had suffered the most under successive military regimes.
He said that the Legislature had also come under serious attacks by Nigerians in recent times, blaming it on lack of proper understanding of the roles of the Legislature in a democratic system of government.
The spokesman said that the theme for the 2020 National Legislative conference, which will hold today, November 30, in Abuja is “Legislative Investigation Powers, Expectations and Challenges and the Way Forward’’.
According to him, the conference is being put together by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in collaboration with HallowMace Communications Ltd and will bring state and national legislators to discuss salient issues with other stakeholders.
“We are bringing this conference to address the grey areas associated with the powers of the National Assembly.
There are people who ague the content of the investigative powers; we have seen cases where people have queried National Assembly’s investigative powers.
“People are also asking question about the powers of the National Assembly to increase or reduce the national budget.
“But we know that sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution give the National Assembly far reaching powers when it comes to issues of investigation.
“However, there are some schools of thought who argue that the National Assembly are only to expose corruption and most of these issues are in the Executive Arm.
“When the Legislature finishes its work, it still hands over the findings to the Executive for implementation.
“These are the challenges; so the conference will focus on us examing and beaming x-ray lights on how the National Assembly can effectively utilise its investigative powers and also look at the challenges.
“In the most recent hearings, we have seen party stalwarts go and air and asking the Senate President and the Speaker questions like, who is the majority in the National Assembly?
“Why do you have opposition members heading committees that are now embarrassing our government.
“So that perception that any investigative hearing being carried out by the National Assembly is a witch-hunt or if it is being done by a committee headed by the opposition is being done to embarrass the government, these are things to be looked at,’’ he said.
Okereke, who is also the Convener, Nigeria’s Peoples Assembly, said that of the four major functions of the legislature – lawmaking, representation, oversight and constituency services – the oversight function has come under serious scrutiny.
According to him, it is through the oversight function that the assembly institutes public investigative hearing.
Okereke said that since 1999, the National Assembly had conducted many investigative hearings including the most recent ones on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and Chinese Loans.
 He said that there was a need to ensure that the outcome of such investigations met the demands and exceptions of Nigerians.
 ”Political interference by the political parties, the political will of the National Assembly to deliver and how open and transparent these process have been and most importantly, what have we done with report of previous investigative hearing.
“And looking at the way forward, it is the committees either standing or ad hoc, that carries out these investigations.
“So how are people appointed into committee either as chairman or as members and how can viable committee members help in conducting very efficient investigative hearing that will deliver the kind of result Nigerians expect.
“Majorly this oversight is put in place to ensure value for money, to ensure that Executives do not abuse their powers and to ensure efficiency in government and curb waste.
“It is important to pay less attention to lawmaking because every Legislative Assembly wants to score themselves on the number of laws they have made.
“But there are key issues about waste, cost of governance, abuse of power, human rights violation and poor delivery of jobs with government fund,” he said
The spokesman said that the keynote speaker for the conference will be the Chairman Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC).
He said that the Senate president and Speaker are the special guests of honour while the Majority Leader of the House of  Representative and the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami will be speaking at the panel section among others.
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Reps Seeks To Retain Immunity For President Only

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On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed, through a second reading, a bill seeking to retain immunity for the Office of the President and remove immunity from the Vice President, the Governors and the Deputy Governors.
The bill was one of the 42 considered and passed through the second reading stage during plenary presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Mr Benjamin Kalu, in Abuja.
Sponsored by Hon. Solomon Bob (Rivers PDP), the bill is seeking the amendment of Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution to guard against abuse of office and to ensure transparency in governance.
The long title of the proposed legislation read: “A Bill for an Act to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to qualify the immunity conferred on the President, remove the immunity conferred on the Vice President, the Governors and their deputies, in order to curb corruption, eradicate impunity and enhance accountability in public office and for related matters.”
Key amendments include changes to Section 308 of the Constitution, which currently grants immunity to the president, vice president, governors, and deputy governors while in office.
The proposed bill will amend subsection 3 to ensure that immunity only applies to the President and the vice president when acting as President under Section 145 of the Constitution.
Additionally, a new subsection 4 will be introduced to make the immunity clause inapplicable if the office holder is acting in an unofficial capacity, engaging in actions beyond the powers of the office, or involved in criminal conduct.
“The bill seeks to foster transparency and strengthen the fight against corruption by making public officials more accountable for their actions, both in and out of office.”
“Section 308 of the principal Act is amended by:(a) substituting a new subsection (3) as follows: “(3) This section applies to a person holding the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Vice President only when acting as President, in line with Section 145 of this Constitution.
Creating sub section (4) thereto as follows:”(4) The foregoing provisions of this section shall be inapplicable where the person to whom this section applies is acting in an unofficial capacity or where the conduct of the person is beyond the powers of his office or the conduct is criminal in nature.
“This Bill may be cited as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Alteration) Act 2024.
The bill is currently awaiting further debate and consideration by the National Assembly.

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Recall From NASS: INEC Confirms Petitioners’ Contact Details Receipt, Notifies Natasha

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has written to notify Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the senator representing Kogi Central, about the petition by constituents seeking her recall from the national assembly.
INEC said it has also received the contact details of the petitioners.
“Pursuant to section 69 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended, I write to notify you of the receipt of a petition from representatives of registered voters in your constituency seeking your recall from the senate.
“The notification is in line with the provisions of clause 2 (a) of the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024.
“This letter is also copied to the presiding officer of the senate and simultaneously published on the commission’s website. Thank you”, the letter read.
The letter was signed by Ruth Oriaran Anthony, secretary to the commission.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued on Wednesday, INEC said it has now received the updated contact details from representatives of petitioners seeking to recall the senator.
In the statement, Sam Olumekun, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education, said a letter notifying the senator of the petition has been delivered to her official address, copied to the senate presiding officer, and published on the commission’s website.
“The next step is to scrutinise the list of signatories submitted by the petitioners to ascertain that the petition is signed by more than one half (over 50%) of the registered voters in the constituency. This will be done in the coming days.
“The outcome, which will be made public, shall determine the next step to be taken by the Commission. We once again reassure Nigerians that the process will be open and transparent”, Mr Olumekun said.
Sen. Akpoti-Uduaghan had recently accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexually harassing her.
The allegation came in the wake of seating arrangement related altercation between Senator. Akpabio and the Kogi Central senator at the red chamber
She was subsequently suspended from the senate for six months for “gross misconduct” over the incident.
The constituents behind the recall move also accused her of “gross misconduct, abuse of office, and deceitful behaviour”.
The senator has denied wrongdoing and called the recall effort a “coordinated suppression” of her voice.

 

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Bill To Upgrade Lagos LCDAs To LGAs Pass Second Reading

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The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the second reading of a bill to upgrade the Lagos State 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to full-fledged Local Government Areas (LGAs ).
The bill, was sponsored by James Faleke, Babajimi Benson, Enitan Badru, and 19 other lawmakers.
The bill is titled “A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) to Accommodate the Thirty-Seven (37) Development Area Councils of Lagos State as Full-Fledged Local Government Areas, Increasing the Total Number of Local Government Areas in the Federation to Eight Hundred and Eleven (811), and for Related Matters (HB. 1498),”
Once fully enacted, Nigeria’s total number of LGAs will rise from 774 to 811, with Lagos overtaking Kano and Katsina, which currently have 44 and 34 LGAs, respectively.
Proponents of the bill argue that granting full LGA status to the LCDAs would bring governance closer to the people. The 37 LCDAs were created by President Bola Tinubu in 2003 when he was governor of Lagos State.
However, it’s worth noting that the Lagos State House of Assembly has been working on a bill to replace the 37 LCDAs with newly designated administrative areas.

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