Claim – That Niger state Governor did not assent into law private member bills in the 8th Assembly of Niger state House of Assembly
Conclusion – The Claim is False
Definition of Bills and its process
A bill is a proposed legislation under consideration by a legislature. A bill is like a proposal or an idea that has to be deliberated upon and passed into law by the National Assembly. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature and approved by the executive
A bill can be initiated by anybody but only a Member of the House or a Senator can introduce it on the floor of the House or the Senate. Bills are grouped into three categories: Executive, Member and Private Bills.
A Private Member bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a Legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. An Executive Bill is a bill proposed by the Executive (Governor or President), the bill is sent to the Legislature for deliberations and passage into law.
A private member’s bill is not to be confused with a private bill, which is a bill that only affects an individual citizen or group.
The bill passes through some process and stages before it becomes law. All bills must receive three readings before they can be passed into law and the readings must be on different days however, Some bills can receive accelerated consideration based on their urgency and significance for government policy.
The first stage is the identification and classification of the bill according to its need or importance; the second state is the first reading where the bill is tabled, then the second reading will be held where it would be thrown to the entire Legislature where it would be debated upon; after the debate, if it is agreed upon, it would be sent to the appropriate committee for further deliberation but if it does not get the majority support, it is killed at this stage and will not move to the next stage where it would be passed to the appropriate committee.
After the report of the Committee and the deliberation of the Committee of the Whole House, a motion may be moved that the bill be read the third time either immediately or at a later date and passed after each chamber has certified the contents of the clean copy to be accurate. After the third reading, the bill will be passed and copies will be sent to the Executive for assent.
The last stage of a bill passage into law lies with the Executive who signs bills into laws. A bill does not become law until the President signs it.
Explanation of Claims
At the valedictory sitting (a valedictory sitting is the last sitting of a Legislature which marks the end of a legislative term) of the Niger state House of Assembly to end the 8th Assembly, the Member representing Bosso Constituency, Honorable Madaki Malik Bosso claimed that in the past four years of the 8th Assembly, none of the private member bills passed by the House of Assembly was assented into law by the Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello.
He said that the only bills passed into law by the Governor were executive bills sent to the Assembly by the executive blaming the executive of not encouraging the legislators of being proactive.
The valedictory sitting which was held on Friday 7th of June was witnessed and recorded by newsmen (including The Reporter), some members representing the Governor and members of the public.
Verification of Claims
After the sitting, The Nation and Dubawa met with the Legislator who made the claim, Honorable Madaki Malik Bosso but he refused to comment saying he has finished speaking anything regarding the 8th Assembly and the next time how could speak would be in the 9th Assembly.
Another move was made to contact him via text messages which were not replied to and calls went unanswered.
The Nation then got in contact with the outgoing Speaker of the Niger state House of Assembly who said 42 bills were passed by the 8th Assembly out of which 22 were private member bills while 20 were executive bills.
He, however, said that only 25 bills out of the 42 bills were assented into law by the Governor adding that 7 out of the 25 assented bills were private members bills.
“The Governor assented to 7 out of the 22 Private Bills passed by the 8th Assembly of the Niger state House of Assembly. Some were returned based on certain observations by the Governor.”
When asked why he did not dispute the claim when the Legislator raised it during the valedictory sitting, he said the valedictory sitting was an emotional one at which everyone’s emotions were highly displayed and he just wanted to let it be.
There was however no way to get to the Executive to hear their side because the Executive council has been dissolved before the May 29th inauguration of the Governor and no member of the Executive council has since been appointed.
Conclusion
The Speaker of the House of Assembly is the Leader of the House and one who can authoritatively give information about the proceedings of the Assembly and its happenings. Going with the explanation of the immediate past Speaker of the Niger state House of Assembly that seven bills were assented into law by the Governor and the non-responsiveness of the Legislator who made the claim, Honorable Madaki Malik Bosso in responding to his messages and calls, we tend to rate the claim as False.
This fact-check was done by a Dubawa Fact-checking Fellow in collaboration with The Nation Newspaper.
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