The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Bill

  • Not Too Young To Run Bill, NASS’ golden gift

    Sir: It was very welcome news during the course of the year when both houses of the National Assembly passed the constitutional amendment bill colloquially referred to as the ‘Not Too Young to Run Bill’.

    The Not Too Young to Run bill reduces the age of eligibility for legislative and executive offices, as currently prescribed by the constitution. The bill still needs to be ratified by at least 24 state Houses of Assembly and assented to by the President to become law, but it is nonetheless an important step in widening the pool from which we select our leaders and representatives, at least theoretically speaking.

    Theoretically, this is because age is just one of the many subsets in the Venn diagram of political selection in Nigeria. The theory of it all is why many watchers were surprised that the bill did not die on the floor of either house. A substantial part of the advocacy for the bill focused on the unsatisfactoriness of the choices available to the electorate during the election season. Some have described the current order as “sexagenarians who only seem focused on perpetuating 19th-century leadership in a 21st-century world”.

    Beyond the nominal trappings of sloganeering – electricity, good roads, potable water, basic education and healthcare – which have defined our elections in the last three decades, Nigeria needs leaders who can wrap their heads around new world issues – artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies, the internet and so on.

    There is an imperative to usher in a new and virile breed that are competent in speaking to concepts that revolve around innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing  as they impact Nigeria and the wider world in the coming years. To attempt to bridge this massive gap and turn ourselves into a competitive economy requires a lot more vision and strategic thinking than our beret and glove wearing administrators have demonstrated over time. This is where my generation has so much to offer and I do honestly think that we can do much better.

    In all of this, we are not too idealistic. We realise, as has been famously said, that power is never served a la carte. And there are indeed a few governors and senators in their forties that perhaps lend themselves to the argument that youth can lead just as poorly as age – the Wisdom of Solomon, the Age of Methuselah, Strength of Samson having nothing to do with each other and all that. Clearly, there are many other factors such as intellectual capacity, wealth, zoning and so on that prevent the pool of contestants from being much richer than it currently is.

    This is why it is imperative that once the constitution has officially been amended to allow younger people to run for office, advocacy must resume immediately to push new bills. We need new bills such as the Not Too Poor to Run and Not Too Smart to Run bills. The National Assembly can surely open more doors and break more glass ceilings in a bid to fast-track Nigeria’s race to the top while leveraging her greatest assets, its huge youth demography.

    To be less facetious, one must commend the Senate on this issue, for helping to move the needle to ensure that Nigerian youth have a foot in the door to being the leaders of today and tomorrow.

     

    • Folakunle Adeagbo,

    Lagos.

     

  • Medical physicists oppose proposed radiology, radiation medicine bill

    The Nigerian Association of Medical Physicists (NAMP) has opposed the National Council of Radiology and Radiation Medicine (NCRRM) Bill, which is being considered for passage by the House of Representatives, describing it as needless.

    The Bill titled: “A Bill for an Act to establish the National Council of Radiology and Radiation Medicine (NCRRM) to provide for the control and practice of the profession of Radiology, Radiation Medicine, Nuclear Medicine, Radiotherapy, Radiography, Medical Physics and Technology and other related matters,” was brought before the  House by Hon. Patrick Asadu.

    In a statement by its President, Professor Moses Aweda, and Secretary Dr. Taofik Ige, the association said Medical Physics Bill, an Executive Bill, which has reached advanced stage of its proposition, has taken care of all issues concerning registration, training, qualification, practice, ethics, among others, being raised in the said NCRRM Bill. The Bill is, therefore, not only unnecessary, but least relevant to medical physics.

    They said NAMP was unequivocally opposed to the proposed NCRRM  because it is apparently taking over the job of NNRA as it seeks to register and monitor radiological facilities.

    “They said the Bill is retrogressive in nature rather than progressive in a world where technology in medical and paramedical disciplines is fast advancing, hence promoting fast growth. The administrative system as provided by the said NCRRM Bill will create bottleneck, retard inter-disciplinary research and development, thus making the concerned professions and specialties and sub-specialties lag behind in the fast-growing world.

    “NAMP considers the NCRRM Bill as most unnecessary, most irrelevant, futile, barren, inappropriate, without genuine focus and empty. The Bill will lead to waste of time, material, financial and human resources due to its retrogressive nature. There is not even one of the listed roles that are not yet in place in Medical Physics and in the different concerned professions,” the statement read.

    It continued: “And after much considerations and deliberations on the said Bill, NAMP decided to take position as follows: Medical  Physics  is a specialty of Physics  that  applies  the  concepts  and  theories  of Physics  in  almost  every  branch  of  health  and  medicine. The NCRRM Bill does not portray the interest of Medical Physics. The control and practice of Medical Physics are already in place. There is no justification for the proposed NCRRM Bill as it is difficult to identify the problem the Bill intends to solve.” In the words of the body, “there is no problem with the current system in place as each profession already has a Body, and has been, to date, operating a good standard through the accreditation system put in place, which serves as quality assurance.

    “The regulation of the practice of radiation medicine, which the NCRRM Bill seeks to address, is already in place. The Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA), the watchdog for radiation safety in the country, is in place to ensure safe practice, not only in medical and para-medical practices, but also in the Industrial applications of ionising radiations. Passage of the Bill will amount to duplication of duties, waste of govern-ment’s scarce human, financial and material resources.”

  • On the Hate-speech Bill

    SIR: I have followed with keen interest the controversy over the  Hate-speech Bill with several commentators and the general public insisting that government position on monitoring Nigerians on social media is unwise, insensitive retrogressive and uncivilized.

    Hate speeches as terrorism? I hope we are not going back to the proverbial Egypt!

    Doesn’t it look like gagging? Using the state apparatus to monitor individual comments?  We must be careful here. In as much as the purveyors of such insidious statement are on the loose, any decision that could jeopardise or threaten our already fragile coexistence should be avoided.

    Thomas Jefferson, the third American president 1801 – 1809 in his letter to Edward Carington 1786, laid emphasis on the importance of a free press to keep government check. He concludes that if he had to choose between “a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter”. So, it is expedient that while other nations are making progress globally, Nigeria shouldn’t be left behind.

    Government must be ready to entertain criticism, especially in a democratic environment and try as much as possible to prevent divisive tendencies like quit notice from one ethnic group to another. Social media is a powerful tool for social and political engagement. This was exploited to its fullest during 2015 general elections in favour of the opposition then now the ruling party. I am not saying it should be used to pull down the government or destroy a perceived enemy, but the press shouldn’t be shackled.

    Setting the military in motion to monitor social media whose primary duty is to defend the nation against external aggression is worrisome. The military at the moment should be facing the dreaded Boko Haram sect; mandating them to monitor who and what an individual comment about the government is a distraction.

    We should be concerned about the economic recession and its implication on the citizens; I am disturbed about the rate at which Nigerians turn into beggars. That should worry the government more.

     

    • Alifia Sunday,

    Ilorin, Kwara State

  • The Hate-speech Bill

    The fiendish spirit of divisiveness is on the prowl in the Nigerian nation-space. Everywhere you go, you can hear deprecatory protests against marginalization, against the corporate existence of Nigeria, against inequity, social injustice, ethnical and religious intolerance, against the unhindered ravages of Fulani herdsmen and hues and cries for the restructuring of the federation or even the outright balkanization of Nigeria as a country. These protests are given a common-on fillip by the philippics of the educated elite and the dichotomous diatribes of the proletariat, otherwise known as “hate speech”, ensconcing fissiparous tendencies, anti-group invectives, the germs of inter-tribal violence and even secessionist inclinations in their overt articulations. This is the untoward flicker of schismatic light which the federal government, with the aid of the legislature, wants to snuff out before it snowballs into a conflagration. Good.

    I am, however, in the grip of gnawing fears about the executive-driven Hate-Speech Bill, which is not unlikely to be signed into law, with efficient speed, by the executive, its author.  The bridle on the eruption and wildfire spread of hate speeches, which must include hate songs, such as was recently intuited and sung by one bucolic lady in the North to disparage the Igbo and to arrogate the Niger Delta oil to the North, must be applied. But is such a law not likely to trample upon the citizens’ fundamental human rights as enshrined in sections 22 and 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Cap. 10, LFN, 1990), in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), etc. with regard to the freedom of expression?

    Will this prospective law not muzzle free speech, criticism and dissentient views of the government, particularly in socio-political and economic milieux in which rank injustice, inequity, howling nepotism, naked favouritism, cronyism on stilts, barefaced nonfeasance, malfeasance and misfeasance reign supreme?

    A corpus of questions has been thrown up by the proposed law: first, will the ruling party not use this prospective law to hound members of the opposition into extinction, considering that even the ongoing “war” against corruption is patently targeted at the opponents of the ruling party? Secondly, if the Hate Speech Bill is passed into law, and anyone is accused of a hate speech or song, what new-fangled legal name would be given to the offence: felony, treasonable felony, slander, libel or terrorism which, under the provisions of section 33 (1) (a) of the Terrorism Act, 2011, an accused found guilty thereunder, “is liable to life imprisonment or to a fine of not less N150 million”?

    Thirdly, how will a hate speech be determined? Fourthly, will this law be targeted at the common man in the society only or at the bourgeoisie as well? Fifthly, will the Hate Speech Law be powerful enough to look the northern elders and the Arewa youths straight in the face or is it intended only for the Niger Delta militants and Nnamdi Kanu and his group? Sixthly, if someone, for example, complains bitterly about the gruesome murder of a Gideon Akaluka or of a Madam Agbahime, whose murderers were either disingenuously not identified or identified and freed, would such a complainant be charged with a hate speech? Or, seventhly, when Fulani herdsmen brazenly enter into someone else’s farmland against all the principles of Ryland’s vs. Fletcher, destroying all his crops, killing the farm owner and raping his wife into the bargain, and the relations of the victim kick up a shindy, using caustic language against the ethnic nationality of the murderous criminals, would such “hate speakers” be accused of an offence?

    I have a hunch that a Hate Speech Law would introduce military rigorism and authoritarianism into the body politic and would definitely erode the citizens’ fundamental human rights. The way out of hate speeches and songs, I am persuaded, is good governance. The President should steer clear of military language and take the entire nation as his own constituency, to start with. The nation’s economy is in dire straits; this calls for a definite action plan aimed at the restoration of the glorious days when each region was self-sufficient and not a leech on the centre, no thanks to the notorious section 162 of the 1999 Constitution; the country’s economy remains a mono-cultural economy in spite of the threats from the European and American worlds that it would be an offence, in the foreseeable future, for any vehicle-manufacturing company to produce any petroleum-oil-using vehicles;  the infrastructural facilities in the country are either decayed or putrefying; the internecine feud in the ruling party is a clog in the wheel of good governance; the educational system is in the doldrums; the health sector is in shambles, which is why President Muhammadu Buhari has to shuttle between Abuja and London, in search of treatment, even though there are countless, highly qualified, medical practitioners in Nigeria. The Grade A roads in Nigeria are death-traps; staple foods are priced beyond the reach of the common man; the Naira-Dollar exchange rate is in the firmaments; these days, suicide has become a fashionable escape from grinding poverty…

    One big problem with Nigeria is that its leaders junket round the civilized world, see and enjoy beautiful facilities, drive, or are driven, on apian ways, stay in ten-star hotels (if there are, gambolling where the angels fear to tread), go to well-equipped hospitals in the UK, America, Germany, India, etc., and put their children in choice schools in those countries, then return to facilities-deficit Nigeria to live in their posh edifices, ride in their flashy cars and fly in their jets, leaving the very bad roads for Frank Fanon’s wretched of the earth! These are more dangerous pockets of war (the whys and wherefores of Nigeria’s regression) than hate speech!

    Nigeria has all the resources (human, mineral and material) to be a super power! These same leaders brazenly, and with aplomb, intone the indivisibility and inviolability of Nigeria as though Nigeria stood on a more solid substructure than the British Empire, India before 1948, Yugoslavia, before it balkanized into ethnic lines and Sudan, before South Sudan was born. It is high time the Nigerian government trod on the path of civilization: organize a plebiscite to determine the wish of the people concerning, for example, restructuring of the country, as was done in Brexit and in the referendum to determine whether or not Scotland should secede from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and shunned militaristic threats of blood!

     

    • Akiri, an attorney, writes from Lagos.
  • Balarabe faults bill seeking amnesty for looters

    Balarabe faults bill seeking amnesty for looters

    Former Kaduna State Governor Balarabe Musa has asserted that the Bill before the House of Representatives seeking amnesty for treasury looters will only legitimise corruption.

    Musa, speaking in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said he was disappointed with the lawmakers for even discussing the bill.

    “Honestly, I am terribly disappointed that a bill like that is being discussed at the National Assembly.

    “The bill is immoral and it shows the level of moral degeneration the country has attained, especially at the leadership level.

    “The proposal to me, is a way of legitimising corruption, because you are telling people to loot and declare may be part of the loot, then you are set free.

    “This is not good for Nigeria, for development and for the fight against corruption,” he said.

    The bill, sponsored by Linus Okorie (PDP Ebonyi), was read for the first time on the floor of the House on June 14.

    It seeks to allow those who looted public treasury to return certain percentage of the money in exchange for total amnesty from prosecution.

    Musa, who questioned the morality of the lawmakers for even discussing the bill, urged them to drop it, saying it hurt the collective interest Nigerians.

    Chairman, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL) Mr. Debo Adeniran said if the bill was allowed to become law, it would encourage corruption with impunity.

    Adeniran said what the country needed at this time were laws to strengthen the anti-corruption war and ensure punishment for looters.

    “This bill is uncalled for because the only thing it will achieve is to encourage people to steal and return part of the money for amnesty.

    “At the end, it will still be victory for corruption and that is not good for the development of the country,” he said.

    Adeniran also spoke on the decision of the government to publish names of looters, saying the move would go a long way in discouraging corruption.

    He, however, urged the government to ensure judicious use of recovered looted funds so as to impact on the lives of the masses.

    “Yes, the decision of the Federal Government to publish names of looters following a court order is a welcome development.”

  • Ortom vows to reduce N7.9b monthly wage bill

    Ortom vows to reduce N7.9b monthly wage bill

    Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has promised that his government will scale down the alarming N7.9 billion monthly wage bill as it can longer be sustained by the government.

    The state’s wage stands at N4.2 billion while the local government council is N3.7 billion monthly.

    Ortom, who addressed State House correspondents in Abuja, said the government has begun a comprehensive staff audit to identify ghost workers and remove those due for retirement.

    The staff audit, which will last for three months, will put the government in a better position to pay outstanding salaries, he said.

    Ortom said: “You will recall that I declared a state of emergency on payment of salaries, because I want to be able to  pay salaries as and when due as a worker deserves his wages.

    “I think a wage bill of over N3.2 billion at the state level is too much. When you add pensions and gratuity, it gets to about N4.2 billion; it is too much for Benue State. At the local government, you have a wage bill of N3.7 billion.

    “Ghost workers, those due for retirement and the dead are still in service, collecting salaries and all that. So, we believe that at the end of the day, we will scale down to a level that we will be able to pay salaries as and when due.”

    The governor added that his administration inherited a monthly bill of N8.2 billion from the Gabriel Suswam-led government, but reduced it to N7.9 billion, which he wants to further scale down.

  • Plateau workers protest new pension bill

    The union of Plateau State-owned tertiary institutions disrupted proceedings at House of Assembly yesterday to protest the new Contributory Pension Scheme bill.

    The house has assembled for plenary when the protesters stormed the assembly complex and disrupted proceedings.

    The protesters, drawn from the six tertiary institutions in the state, were led by the Chairman, Comrade Paul Dakogol.

    They carried placards with inscriptions like “Speaker, do not drag Plateau workers into PENCOM”; “Contributory pension is full of manipulation”; “Exempt staff of tertiary institutions from the proposed new pension scheme”; “House of Assembly, please protect our existing gratuity scheme”; “We are saying no to the new pension bill”.

    Dakogol said: “The funding of accrued liabilities from the present scheme is another big challenge that workers will really suffer from, considering the financial indebtedness of the state. For instance, how will government meet up with its accrued liabilities to the institutions, which we have calculated to stand at about N15 billion, in event of transitioning to the new scheme? This is a big burden when we put other government workers into consideration.”

    The union called on the House of Assembly to strengthen the present pension and gratuity scheme and intervene for the release of accreditation funds by the Ministry of Finance.

    The Speaker, Peter Azi, lauded the protesters for their peaceful assembly. He assured them the House will pass a law that is acceptable to the people.

  • Ijaw youths reject PIB as Senate passes Bill

    Ijaw youths yesterday disowned the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) recently passed into law by the Senate.

    The youths, under the auspices of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, said passing such a version of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) portrayed senators as insensitive lawmakers.

    In a statement by its spokesman Henry Iyalla, IYC said the PIGB, which failed to provide special funds for oil-producing communities, would not guarantee peace in the Niger Delta region.

    The statement said: “We condemn the show of insensitivity by the Nigerian Senate on the recent passage of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), which makes it clear that the only interest the government has in the Niger Delta region is control of its oil.

    “It is unfortunate that at a time we expect the government to show commitment in the development of the region, we have to contend with the celebration of an ill-conceived idea to divide the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into greed-driven mushroom bits.”

    IYC insisted that the only PIB that would ensure peace in the region and calm frayed nerves must include the Oil Communities Fund Act.

    The group said such Act would give Niger Delta residents a stake in the industry and provide avenues to alleviate their suffering.

    It added that without such funds, any governance structure put in place in the region would fail.

    IYC said: “It must be stated that for oil and gas-related activities to operate smoothly within the Niger Delta region, the National Assembly, which is saddled with the responsibility of law-making, should immediately take further steps for the quick passage of the Host Community Bill.

    “This is to guarantee 10 per cent of the net profit of upstream oil companies on onshore areas and offshore shallow areas to the community.

    “Otherwise, the Niger Delta region would see the recent passage of the PIGB as a calculated move aimed at making laws for the smooth governance of exploitation and exploration of the abundant oil reserve within the region without any consideration for host communities.

    “IYC would not be part of a divide-and-rule method of governance within the oil and gas operations in the region.

    “It should be known by all relevant arms of government that the singular passage of the PIGB will not deliver the full benefits of the intended reforms except the other aspects of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) are legislated upon.

    “The passage of the complete Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is the only guarantee for a smooth and conducive operational environment in Niger Delta, as the people of the region cannot guarantee conducive operational base without the protection of their interest.”

  • Lagos Assembly passes bill

    Lagos Assembly passes bill

    The Lagos State House of Assembly yesterday at plenary passed a bill to harmonise and merge about eight environment laws.
    The bill is titled: “A Bill for a Law to Consolidate all Laws relating to the Environment for the Management, Protection and Sustainable Development of the Environment in Lagos State and for Connected Purposes”.
    Speaker Mudashiru Obasa directed the Clerk, Azeez Sanni, to send a clean copy of the bill to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for his signature.
    The Chairman, Committee on the Environment, Saka Fafunmi, said the bill intends to create a level ground for both local and international investors and that it indeed favours local investors more.
    The Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, insisted on ensuring the need to protect the local investors, saying “we should do it in a way that they will be accommodated”.

  • Christian Court Bill

    • Another threat to secularity and unity

    The news that a bill to introduce a Christian Court in the country has passed a second reading is worrisome. The bill introduced by Gyang Dung (PDP-Plateau) seeks to establish Christian courts in the 36 states of the federation “to bring to reality administration of ecclesiastical Christian tenets and law in adjudicating matters of personal Christian law in civil matters.”  Like an earlier one introduced by AbdulahiSalame (Gwadabawa/Illela constituency of Sokoto) seeking to extend Sharia to cover criminal law and to apply to the 36 states and the federal capital territory, the bill for Christian law digs at the root of the country’s unity.

    It is surprising that sponsors of the bill purportedly seeking to amend Section 37 (I) of the 1999 Constitution appear ignorant of the intent of the constitution’s commitment to the right of every Nigerian to freedom of thought and religion. Like the call for Sharia, the bill for Christian law encourages further division in a country with religious diversity that includes Judaism, Animism, Atheism, and various denominations of Islam and Christianity.

    It is the constitutional recognition of rights of freedom of citizens in a country with multiple faiths to practice their beliefs without derogating from the right of others that underscores the secularity of the Nigerian State, which Sharia and Ecclesiastical laws undermine. Any attempt to merge state and faith in a multi-religious and multi-cultural nation-state carries a huge threat to the security, peace, and stability of the country.

    Lawmakers have a duty not to ignore threats to peace and stability in the country. Past efforts to introduce faith-based legal systems have created negative impact on inter-ethnic and inter-faith harmony in the country.

    Introduction of Sharia in 12 northern states in 2000 led to riots, loss of lives and property. Set against intermittent sectarian problems in the country, terrorism by Boko Haram, a radical Islamist group desiring to transform the country into a caliphate, kidnapping of over 200 school girls, bombing of thousands of citizens, the bill demonstrates gross insensitivity to the challenges facing the country.

    For example, it is unimaginative and irrational for lawmakers to compound the country’s sectarian problems by seeking to establish Ecclesiastical Court of Appeal. Lawmakers behind this bill ought to know that the colonial legal system upon which Nigeria was created grew gradually out of the United Kingdom’s ecclesiastical laws, in response to the demands of modernity and democracy.

    It should also have been obvious to proponents of Christian law, like those calling for Sharia law, that attempts to undo the aw that brought and sustained various nationalities and faiths in the country thus far have the potential to undermine the country’s unity.

    It is, however, salutary that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has indicated its rejection of the bill for a Christian Appellate Court. It is significant that CAN has quickly drawn attention to the failure of lawmakers to do necessary research to find out what Christians really want before canvassing for a Christian judicial system for them. CAN’s statement, “The Christian Courts bill cannot help us; that is why we are voicing it out. This thing is not really what Nigerians want now,” should send a signal to promoters of a bill that has no use to those for whom it is being created that the House of Representatives is engaged in an exercise in futility.

    We find it embarrassing that lawmakers still have time to create distractions at a time of growing challenge for the country. The least that is expected from a serious-minded legislature is to create laws to grow the economy, reduce child and maternal mortality, raise quality of education to make the country competitive, fight rising corruption, create modern infrastructure for development and employment for the teeming youth, alleviate grinding poverty across generations.

    Members of the House going through another ritual of constitution amendment need not distract citizens with bills capable of causing more division in a society already struggling with overwhelming sectarian crises.