Posted by After being approved into law last week by both the upper and lower legislative chambers, the revised Bill for the National Assembly personnel is now awaiting President Bola Tinubu’s signature.
At a news conference in Abuja on Friday, Clement Afuye, chairman of the Alliance for Credible Legislative Conducts, stated that the National Assembly’s activities will be strengthened if the bill is signed into law.
Last week, Michael Bamidele Opeyemi, the Senate Leader, successfully pushed through a law that raised the retirement age for National Assembly staff; this bill is the one that the Senate Leader is pleading with the President to sign.
An increase of five years to the current retirement age for staff of the National Assembly was proposed in the measure.
In spite of misunderstandings regarding the Bill, he said, the House and Senate had shown patriotism by passing a crucial bill to solve the legislature’s staffing issues.
According to the group, it is now critical to urge Nigerians who are patriotic and President Bola Tinubu to work together in protecting the country’s highest legislative body from “powerful vested interests and predators.”
“Adding an extra five years to the tenure of staff of the National Assembly will stabilize the parliament, deepen its procedures and practices, and increase its capacity to deliver for the good of our democracy and country. Considering the enormous work inherent within the Parliamentary system, especially when compared to advanced democracies and the competencies and experience required to perform arduous legislative tasks,” Afuye stated.
According to our analysis, the National Assembly’s bureaucracy would be able to save money, prevent talent from leaving, keep a critical mass of skilled and experienced employees, and function at peak efficiency with the additional years.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was a senator for the Federal Republic of Nigeria; we implore him to add his name to this bill in light of the foregoing.
“Signing the Bill will be the cherry on top of his reforms and a demonstration of his forward-thinking and successful leadership style in his mission to restore America’s economy and democracy to their rightful place in the international community.”
“To clear up any confusion, the Nigerian legislature, being the sole representative body of the country’s democratic system, is still in the process of developing its own practices and procedures in comparison to the executive and judicial branches,” the organization continued.
Keeping in mind that Nigeria shifted from a parliamentary to a presidential system of government in 1979, the National Assembly’s bureaucratic structure has been changing and trying to stabilize itself ever since.
Additionally, the National Assembly had to deal with the crippling reality of intermittent military interference in administration and suppression of the legislative under the reign of the military governments for decades.
“You might be interested to know that the National Assembly’s bureaucracy was not completely independent until the return of democracy in 1999 and the founding of the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) in the year 2000.
“Right now, we want to be crystal clear that no party or individual can stifle or limit the efforts of the National Assembly to function as a fully functional parliamentary democracy on par with the rest of the world.