House Fumes at Senate over Non-concurrence of Bills

By Udora Orizu

Members of the House of Representatives at the plenary yesterday expressed displeasure at their counterparts in the Senate over bills they sent for concurrence.

Though the insinuation of bad blood/supremacy battle over bills concurrence between the two chambers has constantly been denied by the House Spokesman, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, at different fora, however, at the plenary, the two bills received from the Senate for concurrence were stepped down by the Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.

The drama started when the Chief Whip of the House, Hon. Tahir Monguno, sought permission to present two Senate bills for third reading.

The legislations included a Bill for an Act to Establish Chartered Institute of Directors of Nigeria to Provide Professional Training to Directors and Promote Effective Governance, Public Accountability and Professional Efficiency, and a Bill for an Act to provide for the Establishment of Federal University of Agriculture and Technology, Aboh, Delta State.

Reacting, the Speaker, Gbajabiamila, asked him how many outstanding bills House members have in the Senate.

While responding, Monguno explained that from the records, the Senate has concurred more to House bills than they have concurred to the Senates’, adding that he got his assertion from the rules and business committee.

Monguno’s statement, however, drew loud ‘nays’ from majority of the lawmakers who became agitated, insisting that the bills should be stepped down.

Commenting also, the Minority Leader, Hon Ndudi Elumelu, lamented that the total number of House bills concurred by the Senate are 17 and the total number of Bills awaiting the Senate concurrence from House is 69.

Elumelu said: “Total number of bills from the Senate is 68; so ours is more than by 11. Total number of Senate bills the House concurred with are 16, and the total number of Senate bills awaiting consideration are only four here. The total number of Senate bills awaiting second reading is 38. So ours is 69.”

Interjecting, Gbajabiamila directed the Rules and Business Committee to put it in writing the details of House bills concurred by the Senate.

The Speaker said he’s aware of several members who have their bills sent to the Senate for a long time and nothing has happened till now.

On his part, Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai (PDP, Delta) said the two bills should be given concurrence, adding that if there wer any grey areas to be sorted with the Senate, the principal officers should handle such.

He opined that stopping Senate’s bill would amount to building a clash that is not needed in a democracy, and trying to stop the enactment of law that is within the powers of the lawmakers will not augur well.

Chiding Ossai for his submission, Gbajabiamila bemoaned the refusal of the Senate to give concurrence to bills sent to it by the House.

He, however, said that stepping down the bills did not suggest that there is a rift or problem between the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The Speaker added that the issue could be due to administrative challenges, and directed the Clerk of the House to liaise with the Clerk of the Senate to resolve the logjam.

Gbajabiamila said: “Ossai, if you have a bill that you’ve laboured for and has been sent to the Senate and it’s been there for six months, you would not say what you have said now. In everything in life, there’s a doctrine called reciprocity; there’s no hard feeling, but we have to carry one another along. We don’t have issues with the Senate; we are just saying that bills that come from this House should receive the same treatment as bills that come from the Senate. The basis for your ratio should be the number of bills not the number of members. At this point, the clerk should meet his Senate counterpart, and let him know our thinking here, so that we can come to some kind of agreement on how to move forward. There’s no problem between the Senate and the House, I think what is going on is an administrative problem. It’s got nothing to do with the senators; maybe it’s among the administrative staff.”