Concurrence: Why we're delaying House bills

The Senate has explained that the delay in debating and considering concurrence bills from the House of Representatives is due to its commitment to thoroughly scrutinising the bills before passing them.

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The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, made the explanation during plenary on Tuesday in response to the resolution of the House of Representatives to suspend consideration of all Senate-originated bills pending concurrence.

The House made the decision on 2 July during its plenary, attributing it to delays by the Senate in reciprocating the prompt consideration of House bills.

Section 4 of the Nigerian Constitution empowers the two chambers of the National Assembly, the Senate and the House of Representatives, to make laws for the country’s peace, order, and good governance.

The core responsibilities of lawmakers include legislating through bills and motions, overseeing government agencies, screening and confirming presidential appointments, ratifying treaties, and addressing petitions from citizens and organisations.

However, for a bill to be passed into law, it must receive concurrence from both chambers, after which it is transmitted to the president for assent.

During the House plenary on 2 July, the House members objected to the transmission of a Senate bill seeking to amend the Federal Orthopaedic Hospital Management Act. The objection was primarily to protest the delay in passing their bills, currently awaiting concurrence in the Senate.

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Cosequently, the House Speaker, Abbas Tajudeen, ruled that all Senate bills awaiting concurrence would be stepped down unless clear reasons were provided for expedited consideration.

Thorough process

Reacting to the development, Mr Bamidele said the Senate had no intention to frustrate the legislative process or delay bills from the lower chamber.

The senate leader stressed that the delay was primarily because of the Senate’s commitment to thoroughly review all concurrence bills in the national interest.

“Only last week this Senate concurred to six bills from the House of Representatives and yes, while we have the principle of chamber reciprocity, Mr. President, the principle of chamber reciprocity does not necessarily mean for us garbage in garbage out.

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“We will continue to consider concurrent bills sent from the House of Representatives the same way they also consider our own, and we will ensure that every bill is given attention in the overall public interest. I just wanted to say this. We are attending to those concurrent bills, and we continue to do what we are supposed to do,” he said.

In his remarks, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, noted that the upper chamber takes all bills from the House seriously

“Last week we attended to about six of those bills, and this week, I don’t know how many, but at least I know we are going to do two today, and we’ll continue to do so.

“So please let our brothers in the House of Representatives know that we cannot joke with anything that comes from there. It takes two hands to clap, and we’ll continue to work together,” Mr Akpabio said.