Mixed Reactions as House Debates Immunity Bill
The move by the House of Representatives to provide immunity for national and state Houses of Assembly’ presiding officers has received knocks from the public, reports Udora Orizu
The Bill seeks an amendment to Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to extend such immunity to presiding officers of the National Assembly. This includes Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and Speaker and Deputy Speaker in the 36 state Houses of Assembly.
“The provisions of subsection of this section shall not apply to civil proceedings against a person to whom this section applies in his official capacity or to civil or criminal proceedings in which such a person is only a nominal party.
But such investigation should be done as not to infract on the provisions of section 308. The word “otherwise” in section 308 is to cater for and cover situations not specifically provided for under the paragraph but which may result in the arrest or imprisonment of the person concerned.” The lawmaker explained that either genuine or not, such distractions have had serious negative impact on the quality of legislation, as well as discouraging presiding officers of the legislative institutions at National and State levels from taking the bull by the horn or taking certain critical decisions, when necessary for fear of unknown.
Commenting on the bill, House Speaker, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, posited that it would not be morally right for him to preside over the debate if he was going to be a beneficiary of the immunity. His words: “Let’s look at this away, only two people are voted by Nigerians, and if you come to National Assembly, we have 360 members in the House and 109 in the Senate. So, the presiding officers need to be protected. The harassment from the Executive stops us from doing our job. Without this arm of government, there is no way we can fight corruption”.
They reasoned that conferring such privilege on the presiding officers of the legislature when there was clamor to remove the immunity currently enjoyed by the President of the country, the deputy, State governor and their deputies was not in the best interest of the nation. Hon Onofiok Luke, advised the Speaker, saying once the bill is passed, he would be a beneficiary, which brings about a clash of interest.
“It’s a form of political corruption for the parliamentarians to abuse their legislative powers, intended for use in the public interest, but instead for personal advantage. This is an unacceptable proposition as it gives the impression that both the principal officers of the National Assembly are above the law. If the House of Representatives should have their way, this will rob Nigerians of their rights to accountable government.
“The Bill is for self-protection and the thing there is I am quite sure that it will scale through at the various Houses of Assembly. Here in Nigeria, we approve things based on the benefits to be derived and not whether they are right or wrong. I am not in support of the Bill.” “If it were not for selfish purposes, if it were altruistic and nationalistic, or because they want to be at par with the Executive, why have they not also brought in the Chief Justice of Nigeria, who heads the third arm of government under Section 6 of the Constitution?”
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