Speaker House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila has set agenda for the House in the new year.
Speaking while welcoming members back to the House, Gbajabiamila said adjusting contentious part of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and ensuring constitutional amendment is completed are the two major tasks ahead of the House.
Commending members for the job done to ensure the the Electoral Act Amendment Bill was passed, Gbajabiamila regretted that the amendment bill could not receive presidential assent due to issue of direct primary provision, saying it is most unlikely to receive assent in its current form.
He said “I remain convinced that the proposal for direct primary elections is valuable for building accountability in our political system”.
” Therefore, the House will reintroduce the amendment tomorrow, Wednesday 19th of January, 2022. And we will work quickly to address the mitigating concerns, pass the Bill and send it back to His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari for assent”.
“Unfortunately, that Bill did not receive presidential assent, and it is unlikely that it will in its current form. Now, we have to choose between sticking to our guns regarding the provision to mandate direct primary elections for political parties or reworking that provision to save the rest of the Bill”.
He observed as appalling reasons advanced on the issue of direct primary that most of the political parties do not have the complete register of members, as such he said failure of political parties is being used to deny Nigerians opportunity to decide who will be their leaders.
Gbajabiamila observed that the proposal for direct primary is valuable, but the house will reintroduce it.
On Constitutional amendment bill, Gbajabiamila said “Our current constitutional review effort is as crucial as the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill. Amending our nation’s constitution to address longstanding areas of disagreement and remove the vestiges of militarism from our democracy is one of the central commitments we made in the 9th House”.
“It is a commitment we must meet or risk the harsh judgment of history. Therefore we will prioritise action to pass the Constitution Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives. Fortunately, we are in the final stages of that effort and will shortly conclude this all-important work”.
He hinted that the first set of amendments will be forwarded to the state assemblies for consideration before the end of February.
As against the error in the draft, he made bold to say that what was passed is far from what was being circulated.
The speaker reminded members that time is of essence and the nation has nothing less than 13th months to election before the national elections.
He enjoined members to approach the last stretch of their legislative agenda and fulfil the obligations with Nigerians.