Sunday, 7 June 2015

THE FIRE BRIGADE APPROACH

On Thursday 4th of June, 2015, Senator Ita Enang moved a motion that the Senate suspends its rules, to allow the Senate expedite the concurrence proceedings of the 46 Bills originating from the House of Representatives. Apparently, there has been a prior agreement between the leadership of both chambers to suspend their rules to pave way for speedy concurrence. All bills not concurred to by both Houses is considered dead by the end of the 7th Assembly. Therefore, such bills will start de novo in the 8th Assembly. The entire process adopted by the Senate has earned its place in the Nigerian history as the FIRE BRIGADE APPROACH.

Allow me to dedicate a few lines to the Constitutionality and legality of the Senate fire brigade approach. Section 4 of the Nigerian Constitution as amended, gave the National Assembly the express and statutory powers to regulate their proceedings. In other words, the Constitution provides the Senate and House of Representative with the necessary powers and backing to set and enforce their own rules, their own guidelines, their punishment and ultimately decide their own modus operandi. Due to this Constitutional requirement, the National Assembly formulated some sets of binding rules namely; the Senate Standing Order and House of Representative rules for the Senate and House of Representatives respectively. These rule books guides all legislative proceedings and legislators alike, any such proceeding flaunting the set rules will be ruled out of order.

Now, what makes the fire brigade approach legal? Since the Constitution empowers the Senate to regulate self, the real question is, did the Senate pass those 46 Bills in accordance to the provisions of their rule book? Before you answer that, let me take you on a little journey through the provisions of the Senate Standing Order.

First, Order 86(5) of the Senate Standing Order says “when a Bill originating in the Senate has been read the third time, a printed copy of it signed by the Clerk of the Senate and endorsed by the President of the Senate shall be forwarded by Clerk of the Senate to the Clerk of House of Representative together with a message desiring the concurrence of the House of Representative” This is a standard procedure always observed by both chambers. The House with the originating Bill must have considered the Bills before sending it to the other House for concurrence. In this situation, the 46 Bills have been duly considered by the originating house which is the House of Representative. The Bills have gone through the first, second and third readings, committee level, hearings and clause by clause considerations by the House of Representatives.

Secondly, Order 86(6) says “When a bill which originated in the House of Representative has been read the third time; the Clerk of the Senate shall (a) retain the bill and send a message to the House of Representative that the Senate has agreed to the Bill without amendments” This provision explains the possibility of Senate not finding fault with a Bill originating from the House of Representatives. There could be a scenario, whereby the Senate has nothing to subtract or add by the way of amendment to Bills originating from the green chamber. Therefore, it will be safe to say the Senate believes the House of Representative has done a thorough job on the 46 Bills.

Thirdly, Order 79(1) says “Every Bill shall receive three readings previous to its passage, which each readings shall be in different days, unless the Senate unanimously directs otherwise and the President of the Senate shall give notice at each reading whether it is first, second or third” This sections accords the Senate the powers to expedite their own proceedings upon a unanimous decision. The Senate can choose to ditch their traditional three readings in three different days, to allow three readings in just a day.

Lastly, Order 45(1) says “No rule shall be suspended except by the vote of two thirds of the Senate” That is, with required number of votes, the Senate is allowed to set aside any of their rules. I can vividly remember that the Senate had to set aside their rules to allow professor Jega and his entourages, who are not elected senators, access into the red chamber. Senator Ita Enang simply moved that the Senate do suspend their rules hindering the speedy passage of 46 Bills in one sitting. The motion was duly seconded, question put and positive.

These Bills are quite important and really affects an average Nigerian. It’s my job to analyze Bills and so far Whistle Blower Bill and Sexual Offences Bill have been very interesting and I find them very important. I promise to publish my research analysis on this blog soon. In my opinion, I think it would have been really sad to allow these important Bills go start afresh in the 8th Assembly. It might just take the 8th Assembly another four years to get this level, bearing in mind that the bulk of the 8th Assembly legislators are first timers.

Back to the question, do you think the Senate passed those 46 Bills in accordance to the provisions of their rule book? Do you think they were being patriotic? Or do you think they just like to abuse powers? One last question, who do you think benefits if those 46 Bills are signed into law? Do not forget you are the judge and jury.

Babajide Olusola Omojola

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