{"id":2030,"date":"2021-04-14T09:40:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T09:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/?p=2030"},"modified":"2021-04-14T09:40:04","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T09:40:04","slug":"nass-resumes-as-concerns-for-priority-bills-mount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/nass-resumes-as-concerns-for-priority-bills-mount\/","title":{"rendered":"NASS Resumes As Concerns for Priority Bills Mount"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Electoral Bill, PIB, Constitutional Reform Bills<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nigeria\u2019s National Assembly\nreconvened on Tuesday, April 13 from its two-week Easter recess amidst concern\nthat some key bills remain unattended. The National Assembly had on March 25\ngone on recess ahead of the Easter holiday. It has now resumed. The resumption\nhowever, means the return to plenary amidst concerns that several key bills are\nyet to be deliberated upon. Citizens and groups have noted that despite its\ninitial promise of ensuring passage of the Electoral Act (Repeal &amp;\nRe-enactment) Bill, 2021 at the end of March 2021, the National Assembly is yet\nto table the bill for plenary discussions after its joint committees have\nconcluded work on it. A new promise by Senate President Ahmad Lawan, to ensure\npassage of the bill in June 2021 can now only be met if both Houses immediately\ncommence deliberations on the bill. Civil society organisations and several\npolitical parties have called for immediate action on the bill to avoid the\nsituation in the 8<sup>th<\/sup> Assembly, where passage of the bill and assent\nby the President was delayed until the last month before the 2019 general\nelections. At this time, the President had refused assent to the bill on the\ngrounds that it offended the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance which\nforbids significant alterations to electoral laws six months before an\nelection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of further concern to citizens and\ncivil society groups, is the protracted delay in the passage of the Petroleum\nIndustry Bill (PIB) for nearly 15 years. The country has watched in\nbewilderment a failure of the legislature to pass the very critical PIB, that\nis described by experts and industry watchers as capable of releasing the full\npotentials of the oil sector and with concomitant benefits to the nation\u2019s\neconomy. Again, the 9<sup>th<\/sup> National Assembly, which initially promised\nto have PIB passed in the first quarter of 2021, has announced a new shift in\nthe goal post to the second quarter of 2021, that is by June. Policy watchers\ncite the lack of political will and reluctance by entrenched interests\nprofiting from current opaque industry practices for the delay in the passage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Besides the Electoral Bill and PIB,\nis the overarching concerns over the slow start to the Constitution review\nprocess, with several issues needing fundamental reforms and changes. Nigerians\nhad expected that the National Assembly would take urgent action to address\nConstitution review concerns including women participation, local government\nreform, electoral reform, judicial reform, fiscal federalism and the general\nand omnibus discussions on Nigeria\u2019s restructuring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With time running and the remaining period\nof the 9<sup>th<\/sup> Assembly now on a fast count, it is expected that the\nNational Assembly will brace up and act with needed speed in order to make an\nimpression on Nigerians. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Electoral Bill, PIB, Constitutional Reform Bills Nigeria\u2019s National Assembly reconvened on Tuesday, April 13 from its two-week Easter recess amidst concern that some key bills remain unattended. The National Assembly had on March 25 gone on recess ahead of the Easter holiday. It has now resumed. The resumption however, means the return to plenary amidst [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[313,312,310,311],"class_list":["post-2030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-constitutional-reform-bills","tag-electoral-bill","tag-nass-resumes-as-concerns-for-priority-bills-mount","tag-pib"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2037,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030\/revisions\/2037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}