The National Assembly yesterday transmitted 35 bills out of the 44 bills sent to the state Houses of Assembly to President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent.
LEADERSHIP had earlier reported exclusively that the local government autonomy may hit the rock following its rejection by some state governors and some members of the state Houses of Assembly.
The 44 bills sent to the state Houses of Assembly in March last year include the much-talked-about local government autonomy bill, which was rejected by some states and is yet to be considered by some other states.
As of December 2022, 16 states had already voted for local government autonomy. They are Abia, Kogi, Edo, Ogun, Katsina, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Nasarawa, Niger, Kaduna, Cross River, Osun, Enugu, Kano and Bauchi.
LEADERSHIP reports that out of the 44 bills forwarded to state Houses of Assembly for concurrence, only 35 were voted for by 24 out of the 36 state Houses of Assembly with complete exclusion of financial and administrative autonomy for local governments.
The National Assembly had through its joint ad hoc committee on constitution review in October last year slammed the state governors for preventing the various Houses of Assembly from concurring with constitution amendments proposals for financials and administrative autonomies for the 774 local government councils.
Labour unions in the country also threatened to mobilise workers, particularly local government employees, against the state governments.
But 10 months after the 44 bills were sent to the state assemblies, the Senate yesterday went through 35 items in the bills passed by the state assemblies and resolved in collaboration with the House of Representatives to transmit them to Buhari for assent.
This followed a motion by Senator Micheal Bamidele Opeyemi on behalf of deputy president of the Senate, Sen Ovie Omo- Agege, who chaired the Senate committee on Constitution Review but was not at plenary on Tuesday.
Omo-Agege had told LEADERSHIP at the weekend that 35 bills were ready, saying he will not allow the constitution amendment to go silent, adding that they will collaborate with the House of Representatives and forward the bills that are ready to Buhari for his assent.
The 35 bills are Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No 3 (Change of Names of Afikpo North and Afikpo South Local Government Areas (Ebonyi State); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No 4 (Change of Name of Kunchi Local Government Area (Kano State); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No 5 (Change of Names of Egbado North and Egbado South Local Government Areas (Ogun State) and Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No 7 (Correction of the name of Atigbo Local Government Area (Oyo State).
Others are Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No 8 (Correction of Name of Obia/Akpor Local Government Area (Rivers State); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No 9 (Financial autonomy of State legislatures and State Judiciary); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 10 (Enforcement of Legislative Summon); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 11 (Inauguration of Members-Elect), Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 21 (Deletion of reference in the Constitution to the provisions of the Criminal Code, Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Act, Criminal Procedure Code or Evidence Act), Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 22 (Provision for Intervening Events in the Computation of Time for the Determination of Pre-Election Petitions, Election Petitions and Appeals therefrom).
Also in the bills to be forwarded to Buhari are Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 24 (Expansion of the Interpretation of Judicial Office); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 25 (Appointment of Secretary of the National Judicial Council); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 29 (Devolution of Powers (Airports); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 30 (Devolution of Powers (Fingerprints, identification and criminal records).
Others include Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 31 (Devolution of Powers (Correctional Services), Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 32 (Devolution of Powers (Railways), Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 33 (Devolution of Powers (National Grid System); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 39 (Power to enforce compliance of remittance of Accruals into the Federation Account and Review of Revenue Allocation Formula) and Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 40 (Independence of Certain bodies).
Others are the Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 41 (Removal of Transitional Law-making Powers of the Executive, Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 43 (Domestication of Treaties); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 44 (Timeline for the Presentation of Appropriation Bills); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 45 (Timeframe for the Submission of the Names of Ministerial or Commissioner Nominees); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 48 (Power to summon the President and Governors);
Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 49 (Authorization of Expenditure); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 50 (Replacement of the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation with the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Government); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 51 (Creation of the Office of Accountant-General of the Federal Government), and Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 53 (Separation of the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and of the State from the office of the Minister or Commissioner for Justice).
Others are Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 54 (State of the Nation and State of the State Address); Bill No. 55 (Composition of Members of the Council of State), Bill No. 57 (Restriction on Formation of Political Parties); Bill No. 62 (Correction in the Definition of the Boundary of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 63 (Fundamental Human Rights); Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 65 (Food Security) and Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 66 (Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps).
Accordingly, the Senate directed the Clerk to the National Assembly to transmit the 35 bills that have so far met the requirement of the provision of Section 9(2) of the Constitution to Mr President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federation for assent in line with the provisions of the Acts Authentication Act.
The Senate also urged Gombe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kwara, Oyo, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Zamfara States’ Houses of Assembly to forward their resolutions on the bills in fulfillment of their constitutionally imposed legislative obligation to the constitution amendment process.
Some of the nine bills that failed passage at the State Houses of Assembly were the one that sought for abrogation of the state joint local government account and provide for special account into which shall be paid all allocations due to local government councils from the federation account and from the government of the state, and for related matters.
The bill on the establishment of Local government as a tier of government by guaranteeing their democratic existence, tenure; and for related matters also failed to scale through.
Also, the bill seeking for institutionalisation of Legislative Bureaucracy in the Constitution, and for Related Matters as well as the one that sought for inclusion of presiding officers of the National Assembly in the membership of the National Security Council, and for Related matters are still pending.
