The House of Representatives is to prioritise National Security Bills, seeking to implement the recommendations of the National Security Summit convoked by the Green Chamber in the 2021/2022 parliamentary session.
The House had in the last legislative session, convened a National Security Summit that deliberated on security issues and articulated recommendations for executive as well as legislative action and presented the report to President Muhammadu Buhari who assured that the recommendations will be duly considered and implemented.
Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila in his address to the lawmakers on resumption from their annual recess on Wednesday said while priority would be given to insecurity, the parliament will not abdicate action on other matters of national concern.
Gbajabiamila reaffirmed the commitment of the Lower Chamber to defeating those who have made it their cause to impose on the country an unending orgy of carnage and inflict her people with devastating grief.
“Let it be apparent to those who have made themselves enemies of Nigeria that this 9th House of Representatives will respond to the audacity of their evil with every tool and resource at our disposal, and we will not be deterred.
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“Thus far, we have rightly focused our national security concerns on the machinations of extremist insurgents who seek to remake our world in the image of their discredited theocracy and bandits who maraud and terrorise whole regions for profit. We must now add to these concerns an emerging threat that presents the same clear and present danger. In the South of Nigeria, East and West, miscreants and criminals masquerading as separationist activists have emerged to wreak havoc, take lives and commit economic sabotage against fellow Nigerians and against the state.
“These people, in their inclination for devastating violence against fellow citizens, their appetite for the destruction of private property, their disruption of academic activities, commerce, and industry, their propensity for defiling institutions of the state, society, and community, their refusal to engage in debate, or to consider the possibility of dissenting opinions and alternative viewpoints, are no different from Boko Haram and ISWAP. Given space and time, they will take our nation down the same path of destruction”, he said.
The speaker while alluding to the disapproval of some lawmakers on the
Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill passed without express provision for electronic transmission of election results, said as, in all parliamentary works, the Bill can be revisited for perfection.
“In the last week before our recess, we laid the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill report before the House. For two days, members engaged in intense and impassioned debates inspired by our varied understandings of the ideal, yet motivated by our shared desire to deliver for our country an electoral system that reflects the best aspirations of our people. This is our duty for which there is no alternative and from which we cannot deviate.
“Inevitably, as is always the case, the final count of votes disappointed some. This is democracy in practice, and the democratic process rarely makes for universally accepted outcomes. Therefore, honourable colleagues, I urge as many as are disappointed to set aside their disappointments in the sure knowledge that as the work of parliament never ends, what is done can be revisited until perfection is attained from repeated efforts over time”, Gbajabiamila noted.
He also disclosed that the House Committee on Health Services will in no distant time present the report of the controversial Control of Infectious Diseases Bill after a broad-based effort at public and private engagement and collaboration to produce final legislation that hopefully meets the country’s present and future health needs.
