The motion allows for bills that were passed by a previous assembly but, not assented to, to be presented again to the House for consideration.
The House of Representatives has passed a motion seeking to reconsider Bills passed by the 9th National Assembly but were not assented to by the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari.
The motion presented at its sitting on Tuesday, by the Leader of the House, Rep. Julius Ihonvbere, came under the Order 12, Rule 16 of the Standing Orders of the House.
Presenting the motion, Rep. Ihonvbere noted that “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 Bills were 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 as HBs. 99, 45, 46, 89, 90, and 91 and read the first time, respectively; Resolves to Commit the Bills to the Committee of the Whole for consideration.”
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Deputy Speaker, Rep. Benjamin Kalu, who commended the leader for his foresight in coming up with the motion, added that the move was to cure instances, where bills were passed by previous assemblies but were not assented to and are presented again to the House for consideration.
However, Rep. James Barka (PDP Adamawa) argued that the content of the bills are unknown to first term members and prayed the House to allow such members time to study the bills first.
“We were not in this House when these bills were passed. We don’t know their contents and I feel that the House should be fair to some of us so that we will have a proper understanding of these bills before they are passed.
The lawmaker who was a former Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly further drew the attention of the House to the fact that the House passed the approval of over 500 billion Naira for palliative through similar circumstances.
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The following bills were presented to the House for consideration.
(i) Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (Repeal and Enactment) Bill, 2023 (HB. 99)
(ii) Federal Polytechnic, Nyak-Shendam (Establishment) Bill, 2023 (HB. 45);
(iii) Nigeria Police Force College Training School and Institution (Establishment) Bill, 2023(HB.46);
(iv) National Library of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill, 2023(HB.89);
(v) Nigeria Hunters and Forest Security Service (Establishment) Bill, 2023(HB.90);
(vi) Federal Medical Centres Act (Amendment) Bill, 2023(HB.91);
