National Assembly gets joint Executive, Legislative committee on Bills

By Sani Onogu, Abuja

Senate President Ahmad Lawan on Tuesday inaugurated a joint committee of the National Assembly and the Executive to ensure seamless passage of Bills into law.

House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, some other Federal lawmakers and Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami, were at the event.

Lawan said the committee would enable the Ninth National Assembly perform its law-making job with ease and with the participation of the Executive arm of government.

“We believe the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has given us joint responsibilities when law will be made for the good governance of our country.

“It is either a Bill starts its journey from the Executive side of government and comes to the Legislature before the assent, or the legislature initiates the Bill and, of course, the Bill goes to the President for his assent.

“We have had some experiences that were not too good in the past, when Bills were passed and, of course, the Executive would have some reasons not to assent to them.

“Or, when Bills would come from the Executive arm of government and the Legislature would think otherwise. Maybe the gap was wide, the consultation was low, and we believe we can do better when we encourage this kind of relationship and interaction,” Lawan said.

The Senate President said with the new arrangement, consultations between the Executive and the Legislature will precede the process of any Bill, be it an Executive Bill or private-member Bill.

Gbajabiamila described the committee as “more or less a clearing house for Bills, whichever direction they are coming from, whether from the National Assembly or from the Executive”.

He added: “So, it is not to say that every Bill that comes on the floor of the House will be passed. Neither is it to say that every Bill that comes from the National Assembly will be assented to.

“The idea of this committee is to make sure that incidence like that …will be the exception and not the rule unlike what happened in the past.”

Malami said the joint committee was set up to re-establish and re-enact the collective resolve of the Executive and the Legislature for the development of the country.