Some of the pending bills before the Senate include the controversial Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), amendment of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the Electoral Act, 2010 and approval of the $1 billion loan request of President Goodluck Jonathan, among many other works to be handled.
Also controversial is the ding-dong over the creation of more states contained in the amendment of the 1999 Constitution, even when it is obvious that most of the existing states look up to Abuja to handle monthly responsibilities to the people.
The most compelling need, so far, has been the creation of one more state for the South East, with the belief that doing so would create a balance in the region with the South West and the South South having six states per zone.
PIB makes delay record
The PIB would probably rank as the most delayed piece of legislation in the history of the National Assembly of the Fourth Republic. It was initiated in the Sixth National Assembly by the administration of late President Umar Yar’Adua, and forwarded to the lawmakers in 2008 to help initiate reforms in the Nigeria oil and gas industry.
The plan was also to open up the industry and make its operations more transparently with the uncoupling of the behemoth Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). That attempt ended in controversy because at the end of the day, there were several versions of the PIB in circulation to such an extent that the initiators could no longer recognise the original copy.
And so, early in the Seventh National Assembly, Petroleum Resources Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke sought to correct the anomaly by repackaging and submitting a water-marked PIB to the president for onward transmission to the legislature for consideration.
On July 18, 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan formally forwarded the new PIB to the National Assembly after its predecessor suffered still-birth in the Sixth National Assembly.
Senate took the first reading of the PIB in Septemberof that year but the document had to wait in the cooler for another seven months before it could be tabled in the chamber for the crucial second reading on March 5 to March 7, 2013.
That journey was a tortuous one, though. Before then, there had been insinuations that northern senators were totally against the new PIB, which seeks, primarily, to reform how business is done in the oil sector.
In fact, a section of the Senate chamber referred to the new PIB as ‘a South-South Agenda’ and vowed to correct the seeming anomaly.
In the Sixth Senate, the Senator Lee Maeba-led Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) had done extensive work on the PIB, even as far as holding private retreats and engaging consultants to work on the bill. The only step left for the committee then was to collate the report and submit a clean copy to the Senate. Sadly, that never happened.
And so, soon after the Senate received the new bill, the scope was expanded from the Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) to include the Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Committee on Gas and also, the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters. The PIB is still with the committee but shortly before going on its annual recess, Joint Committee Chairman, Senator Paulker Emmanuel, who also chairs the Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) insisted that the new oil bill will be passed before the expiration of this National Assembly.
Constitution amendment
The Senate would also need to conclude work on the amendment of section 9 of the 1999 Constitution (As amended).
Shortly before going on its annual recess, the chamber amended the Constitution and empowered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister any political party which fails to win, at least, a seat in any state House of Assembly.
Senate also approved clause eight of the Constitution which also seeks to alter the Third Schedule of the Constitution to include former Senate Presidents and Speakers of the House of Representatives as members of the Council of State.
All the 89 senators who participated in the voting were in support of Clause 6 of the amended act empowering INEC to de-register any political party which fails to win presidential, governorship, chairmanship of a local government area council, or a seat in National or States Assembly elections.
The chamber, however, deferred voting on amendments to Section 9 (3) (a) which stipulates how a new Constitution can be drafted. There is a compelling need by the Senate to amend section 9 because the initial amendment was done with two-thirds of the chamber while the correctly stipulated number is actually a required four-fifth as stipulated by the Constitution.
The upper chamber will also vote on Clause 3 (m) which will mandate the INEC to within six months of the receipt of the draft constitution cause a referendum to be conducted to approve the draft.
Electoral Act
The most compelling amendment of the 2010 Electoral Act was the rejection of debates among presidential candidates in any election.
The rejection of presidential debates was contained in the report of the Committee on Constitution Review (CRC) which was presented by Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba at Thursday’s plenary.
Senate, in its wisdom, decided that election debates should be put out of the purview of the law and not make them mandatory for party candidates before standing for an election.
Also discarded was the proposal that sought to place the responsibility of proving the regularity or otherwise of any election on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In the recommendation of the Senate Constitution Review Committee (CRC), which was adopted by the chamber, the burden of proof on electoral irregularities during election should rather be on the petitioner.
Meanwhile prominent among the new amendments to the Electoral Act, are provision of tenure for the Secretary of the Commission.
It also gave INEC sufficient time to process transfer of voters and issuance of duplicate voters’ card and also allowed the electoral umpire to determine the procedure for voting at an election – “thereby removing the prohibition of electronic voting.”
The amendment also increased the time for INEC to produce certified true copies of documents requested by any party in an election petition from one to two weeks. It also provided punishment for polling officers who conspire to make false declaration of results.
The first schedule was however deleted to prevent electoral officers from being respondents in election petitions, among others. The amendments effected in the electoral law by the Senate can only take effect if the House of Representatives toe the same line. The two chambers have till the end of this year to perfect the amendments though.
Budget bill
The only bill that would have easy passage is the annual Appropriation Bill which the entire country depends upon. If precedent is any guide here, the National Assembly would do well not to delay this bill because there’s a tendency for appropriation bills to drag into the next fiscal year. Being the last budget that would be considered by this National Assembly, it is expected that lawmakers would not foot-drag by making sure that the bill is before the President as quickly as December 2014; a budget some lawmakers have already dubbed: ‘Election Budget.’
It is also obvious that the most important piece of legislation in this dispensation would be the PIB. As the abortion of the Third Term agenda defined Senate President Ken Nnmani’s Fifth Senate and the Doctrine of Necessity for Senator David Mark in the Sixth Senate, passage of the PIB (if it does happen), would sure be the defining moment for this Seventh Senate; arguably.
For now, the jury is out on the new PIB but the Paulker Emmanuel-led committee has an herculean task at hand; fashion out a PIB that would be acceptable, not only to the entire Senate but also, allay the fears of the international community that the new oil law is actually meant to reform the sector and not just an agenda of some powerful forces in the corridor of power.
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As Senate resumes today: Ghosts of PIB, other bills lurk around chambers |
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