House Moves to Revisit More Outstanding Bill from Preceding Assembly

Paschal Emeka, Abuja

The House of Representatives has moved to reconsider some of the bills passed by the former (8th) Assembly which they failed to secure concurrence from the Senate, negatived or passed by the National Assembly and the President for one reason or the other withhold assent before the tenure of that Assembly elapsed.

This decision to revisit the bills was a result of a motion of urgent public importance moved by Abubakar Hassan Fulata at plenary on Tuesday in Abuja.

The motion was titled; Reconsideration of Outstanding Bill from the Preceding Assembly. The bills according to Hon. Fulata includes the Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology Bill, 2022,

He noted that “pursuant to Order Twelve, Rule 16 of the Standing Orders of the House, Bills passed by the preceding Assembly and forwarded to the Senate for concurrence for which no concurrence was made or negatived or passed by the Senate and forwarded to the House for which no concurrence was made or negatived or which were passed by the National Assembly and forwarded to the President for assent but for which assent or withholding thereof was not communicated before the end of the tenure of the Assembly, the House may resolve that such bill, upon being re-gazetted or clean copies circulated, be re-considered in the Committee of the Whole without being commenced de-novo.

“Also notes that the aforementioned bill was passed by the preceding Assembly, and forwarded to the President for assent, but for which assent or withholding thereof was not communicated before the end of the tenure of the last Assembly; aware that the bills were re-gazetted and was read the first time.

Consequently, the House resolved to commit the bill to the Committee of the Whole for consideration. Other bills in this category are the Specialized National Dermatology Hospital Bill, 2022 and; the National Commission for Colleges of Education Bill, 2022.

The House noted that the Specialized National Dermatology Hospital Bill, 2022 was passed by the National Assembly and transmitted to the President for assent but was not assented to with observations. They further noted that the National Commission for Colleges of Education Bill, 2022 was passed and forwarded to the Directorate of Legal Services for further legislative action.

According to them, the observations raised by the Presidency and the Directorate of Legal Services of the National Assembly require further legislative action by the House of Representatives and appreciate the need to recommit the bills for reconsideration to address the observations thereof.

The lawmakers also decided to rescind their earlier resolution on the bills and commit the same to the Committee of the Whole for reconsideration.