The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan has called on Governor El-Rufai of Kaduna State to assist in the lobby of other state governors to ensure that state Houses of Assemblies work on the bills transmitted to them for constitutional amendments.
Newsonline reports that Lawan said about 44 bills were transmitted in March to the 36 states’ Houses of Assemblies for legislative work. He regretted that the state houses are yet to start work on the bills.
The Senate President said this while declaring open the Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture 2022 which was organized by the National Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies(NILDS).
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“The National Assembly in March passed 44 Bills to amend some key provisions of the 1999 constitution and transmitted same to the 36 states for their endorsement or otherwise as part of the constitutional amendment process.
“The process requires the endorsement of not less than two-third of the 36 state Houses of Assembly for any of the Bills to sail through but far less than half of the 36 states were believed to have so far transmitted their responses back to the National Assembly,” Lawan said.
Speaking to the Kaduna State governor El-Rufai who chaired the lecture, the Yobe North senator said, “Lawan told Governor El Rufai who chaired the occasion: “We will task you to lobby for us. We have sent(to the states) the outcome of our constitution review and we are yet to receive all from the states.
“So we should be able to wind up this process by getting responses from the state Houses of Assembly. Even if it is one month left, we have the capacity working together to ensure that we pass some of the legislations that are required in a very expeditious manner.
“Lobby your Governor colleagues because I can see that you do that very well.”
Lawan who said the lecture was one of the laudable initiatives of NILDS geared towards bridging the gap between the electorates and their elected representatives, enumerated some of bills passed by the 9th National Assembly which have been assented into law by the president, Muhammadu Buhari.
“Tellingly, the 9th National Assembly (including the 9th House of Representatives) has passed some of the most ground-breaking and significant legislations in the history of parliamentarianism in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“To mention but a few, the Companies and Allied Matters Act, which was passed in 2020, has revolutionized Nigeria’s corporate world and fostered the ‘ease of doing business’ agenda of the federal government of Nigeria.
“The Petroleum Industry Act, which was passed in 2021, is a watershed enactment that clearly stipulates new principles, new regulatory regimes, and new governance frameworks for the realization of the full promise of Nigeria’s hydrocarbons potential,” the senate president said.
