OLA AWONIYI
The ninth Nigerian Senate was inaugurated on June 11, 2019. The ninth Senate started on a peaceful note, with the election of the Senate President and other principal officers devoid of rancour and much drama. The votes cut across party lines and left no bad blood in their wake.
This good start is significant, given the upheaval that the same process had assumed four years before, at the beginning of the eighth Senate when a large group of senators did not even have the opportunity to cast their votes. The leadership election crisis of June 2015 shaped the mood of the senators and would eventually define that assembly, culminating in the defection of the then Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The smooth takeoff set the stage for the harmony in the ninth Senate. The assembly has a sizeable opposition caucus, but its tone has been mostly bi-partisan, temperate and cooperative. The opposition has its voice on every issue but there has been less bombast, grandstanding or playing to the gallery.
This spirit and a unity of purpose nurtured by the leadership have enhanced the legislative process and output. The result is the outstanding achievements that have been made in the first half-year of the ninth Senate.
The Assembly has passed six bills into law, four of which were members’ bills. The first to be passed was the Deep Off-shore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act CAP D3 LFN 2004 (Amendment Bill, 2019).
The Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Bill was promptly assented into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on November 4, 2019, within days of being passed by the National Assembly.
The Senate passed the Finance Bill, 2019 on November 21, 2019. The bill amended seven existing tax and fiscal policy laws (Companies Income Tax Act, 2004; Value Added Tax Act, 2007; Customs and Excise Tariff (Consolidation) Act, 2004; Personal Income Tax Act, 2007; Capital Gains Tax Act, 2007; Stamp Duties Act, 2007; and Petroleum Profit Tax Act, 2004).
The Senate also promptly passed the Appropriation Bill in line with the commitment of the senators to realigning the fiscal calendar to a predictable January-December budget cycle.
The passage is the earliest in recent memory and was done by the lawmakers to enable the government have a full year to implement its budgets.
The ninth Senate also passed three Public Procurement Act 2007 (Amendment) Bills, 2019 to sanitize the public procurement process and curtail corruption.
Aside from the six bills passed, 185 bills have also gone through first reading, while 32 other bills have passed second reading and are before the relevant Senate Committees for the necessary legislative work.
The ninth Senate attaches great importance to the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), Electoral Reforms Amendment Bills and Amendment of the 1999 Constitution.
“The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has defied solution since 2007 when the executive brought the bill and it couldn’t pass. In 2011, it brought it again, it couldn’t pass. In 2015, the legislature took it up in a broken version, it couldn’t pass.
“Now, we have to act differently. The executive and the legislature would work very closely on this and come up with a legislation on the PIB that would be in the interest of Nigeria but also protect the investments that are here, and even encourage more investments to come in,” Lawan said.
The Electoral Reforms Amendment Bill addresses an urgent need to improve the electoral process. The lawmakers want to pass the bill well ahead of the next electoral cycle in 2023 to avoid a repeat of the situation whereby the President declined assent after the eight National Assembly passed the same bill close to the 2019 general elections.
Some of the bills currently being considered by the Senate have stoked concerns from the public. Two of the most controversial are the anti-hate speech bill and the bill seeking to regulate the use of social media in Nigeria.
The Senate President called on Nigerians with strong views on these bills, and indeed on any other one, to attend the public hearings on them so that they can represent their positions before the lawmakers, fellow Nigerians and the watching world.
“I pledge that we, as elected representatives of the people, will always ensure that the will of our people is pivotal in our legislative business. This Senate and indeed the ninth National Assembly will not pass any bill that is not in the national interest. Ours is and will remain a Senate that will always work for Nigerians,” Lawan further stated on this issue.
The Senate within the past six months received 78 public petitions, which it referred to the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions. Most of these petitions were presented by private citizens with grievances against agencies or agents of the government.
The committee has so far examined nine of the petitions, concluded its investigations and laid its reports on the table. The Committee is also working on the other petitions with a view to satisfactorily addressing the grievances behind them.
The Senate also convened roundtable discussions on three critical sectors of our economy. The decision to begin with the power sector is easily understandable.
The Senate Committee on Power assembled stakeholders in the sector at the roundtable discussions and has promised to be guided by their suggestions in presenting a report that is hoped would be decisive in addressing Nigeria’s power challenges.
Similar exercises have been held by the Senate on the solid minerals and steel sector and the agriculture sector. The lawmakers believe that solid minerals and Agriculture offer great potential to transform the Nigerian economy and the government’s revenue profile and wean the country from its overdependence on oil revenue.
The ninth Senate has enjoyed a harmonious working relationship with the House of Representatives and the Executive. This has removed the mutual suspicion and hostility between the two arms that obviously slowed progress in the previous dispensation.
Under the new atmosphere, the National Assembly passed the budget and finance bills timeously and the president reciprocated the gesture with prompt assent to the Deep Off-shore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act CAP D3 LFN 2004 (Amendment Bill, 2019 and the Appropriation Act, 2020.)
The ninth Senate also confirmed 12 key appointments, including those of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Ministers of the Government of the Federation, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, President of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, and chairmen and members of eight commissions, services and corporations.
The Senate has also approved the presidential nominees for the National Hajj Commission, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCOM), and also passed the 2020 Budget for the Federal Capital Territory.
The Senate President is always a loyal party man. He has maintained fidelity to his political platform throughout his career and has been rewarded by his constituents with serial elections and by his party with important roles. But in all the positions he has held, Lawan has been guided by higher national interest. He pledges the same commitment in his current role.
•Ola Awoniyi is the Special Adviser on Media to President of the Senate.
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