The House of Representatives on November 7, considered amendments to its Standing Orders. However, the House is yet to conclude the process of\napproving these amendments. The amendments largely relate to the establishment,\nconstitution and jurisdiction of Standing Committees of the House. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The amendment to Order 18 stipulates that the minimum membership of a\nCommittee shall be 20 and the maximum shall be 40 unless otherwise authorised\nby the Speaker. Committee Chairmen are prohibited from co-opting or adding any\nnew member to their Committee without the express approval of the Speaker. It\nfurther provides that no Member shall belong to more than 10 Standing\nCommittees unless expressly authorised by the Speaker. A further amendment to\nOrder 18 provides for the constitution of Parliamentary Friendship Groups by\nthe Speaker, with their jurisdictions contained in the Standing Orders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amendment to Jurisdiction of Existing Committees <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The amendment to Order 20 is to modify the jurisdiction of some Standing\nCommittees of the House. The jurisdiction of the Committee on Ethics and\nPrivileges is extended to mandate every Member of the House to respond to\ninquiry letters and invitations in relation to petitions against them or any\nother matter within the jurisdiction of the Committee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The jurisdiction of the House Committee on Agricultural Production and\nServices is extended to include oversight of the National Land Development\nFund, the National Agricultural Development Fund and the position of lead\nCommittee in the event of joint oversight and budget engagements with the\nFederal Ministry of Agriculture and Food security involving other Agriculture\nrelated Committees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The jurisdiction of the Committee on Defence is\nexpanded to include other defence and military establishments such as Ministry of Defence Headquarters, Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji; Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement, Oshodi, Lagos; Defence\nHealth Maintenance Limited (DHML), Ministry of\nDefence Health Implementation (MODHIP), Abuja and Defence Space Administration (DSA), Abuja. In addition, the\nCommittee on Defence will be the lead Committee in the event of joint oversight and budget engagements with the\nHeadquarters of Ministry of Defence involving other arms of the military. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The constitution of the Committee on Diaspora is amended\nto include Members largely drawn from Parliamentary Friendship Groups. However,\nin the event of joint oversight and\nbudget engagements with Headquarters of the Ministry Foreign Affairs, the\nCommittee on Foreign Affairs shall be the lead Committee. Similarly, the constitution of the Committee on\nForeign Affairs has been amended to include Members largely drawn from the\nParliamentary Friendship Groups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The constitution of the Committee on Internally\nDisplaced Persons (IDPs) and Refugees is amended to delete the requirement of\n45 members to be drawn from each State of the Federation and the Federal\nCapital Territory (FCT). In addition, the Committee on Poverty Alleviation\nshall be the lead Committee in the event of joint\noversight and budget engagements with Headquarters of the Ministry of\nHumanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The jurisdiction of the Committee on Legislative\nLibrary, Research and Documentation is expanded to include oversight of the\nNational Assembly Library Trust Fund. Similarly, the jurisdiction of the\nCommittee on Pensions is expanded to include oversight of the National Assembly\nPension Board. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The jurisdiction of the Committee on Ports and\nHarbours is amended to include liaison with related Committees on maritime\nsafety and shipping services to conduct budget defence of the Ministry of\nMaritime and Blue Economy. In addition, this Committee shall take the lead in\nthe event of joint oversight and budget\nengagements with the Headquarters of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The jurisdiction of the Committee on Science and\nTechnology is amended to include all\nScience, Technology and Innovation (STI) Scholarship Programmes under the STI sector , as well as Innovation, STI\nParks and Museums. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The jurisdiction of the Committee on Digital and\nInformation Technology (formerly known as the Committee on Information\nTechnology) is amended to include oversight of the recently established\nNational Data Protection Agency. However, in\nthe event of joint oversight on issues relating to cyber security, the\nCommittee on National Security and Intelligence shall work with the Committee\non Digital\nand Information Technology, with the former\nas the lead Committee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The amendment introduces oversight of terrorism and counter terrorism agencies, the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Presidential Amnesty Programme and cyber security issues to the jurisdiction of the Committee on National\nSecurity and Intelligence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n New Committees and their Jurisdictions<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The amendment introduces new Standing Committees and outlines their respective jurisdictions in the House\u2019s Standing Orders. These Committees \u00a0include:\u00a0 Committee on Health Specialty Care and Services, Committee on Renewable Energy, Committee on National Rural Electrification Agency, Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility, Committee on University Education, Committee on Federal Polytechnics and Higher Education, Committee on Alternate Education, Committee on Federal Colleges and Education, Committee on TETFUND and other Services, Committee on Basic Examination Bodies, Committee on Police Institutions, Committee on Banking Regulations, Committee on Banking and other Ancillary Institutions, Committee on Christian Pilgrims Affairs, Committee on Muslim Pilgrims Affairs, Committee on Youth in Parliament, Committee on Hydrological Development, Committee on Petroleum Resources (Midstream), Committee on Science Engineering, Committee on Public Assets, Committee on Digital and Electronic Banking, Committee On National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other include Committee\non Shipping Services and Related Matters, Committee on\nAviation Technology, Committee on Small And Medium Enterprises, Committee On Public Sector\/ Institutional Reforms, Committee On Safety Standards And Regulations, Committee on\nConstitution Review, Committee On Monitoring And Evaluation Of\nImplementation Of Legislative Agenda, Committee\nOn Monitoring And Evaluation Of Standing\/Ad-Hoc Committees, Committee On States And Local Governments, Committee On Petroleum Resources (Training Fund), Committee On Traditional Institutions, Committee On Military And Paramilitary Pensions, Committee On National Agency For Science And\nEngineering (NASENI) and 52 Parliamentary Friendship Groups. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The House of Representatives on November 7, considered amendments to its Standing Orders. However, the House is yet to conclude the process of approving these amendments. The amendments largely relate to the establishment, constitution and jurisdiction of Standing Committees of the House. The amendment to Order 18 stipulates that the minimum membership of a Committee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3460","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=3460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3468,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3460\/revisions\/3468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}