Senate to prioritise 2015 budget on resumption Tuesday

• EU delegation meets chamber’s leadership on credible election

AS the Senate resumes Tuesday from its five week-break, Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Business, Ita Enang, says that priority attention would be given to the 2015 Appropriation Bill.

   Enang disclosed Monday that the contentious Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and all other reports awaiting consideration and passage in the Upper Chamber would also be treated in the order of priority. 

   The Senate, he said, would immediately tackle all the pending legislative items that it had proposed to work on before the recess in January ahead of the general elections.

According to him, “now that the elections have been shifted, we are going to work on all of them pending bills, including the budget, PIB and all reports planned for consideration) before we go back for the rescheduled elections.”

   Also, the European Union Election Monitoring team has described the six-week postponement of the 2015 general elections as an avenue for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to buckle up for more credible polls.

   Speaking at its meeting with the Senate leadership, the delegation led by Santiago Fisas said that though it is impossible to run a perfect election, the postponement, however, would enable the umpire straighten gray areas relating to electoral processes.

   “Of course, there is never a proper election. We know that INEC has made great effort towards having the best election possible,” Fisas said. “It is true that you are using a new system for the first time, that perhaps will make things more complicated because the electorates are not aware of the system and there will be some technical problems.

   “But we believe that this six weeks delay will be enough for INEC to solve a majority of the problems that could have happened if the elections had held as earlier scheduled.”

   Responding, Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, who represented Senate President David Mark, noted that the biggest challenge facing democracy in Nigeria is internal democracy. However, he appealed to the European Union to partner political parties in Nigeria to ensure internal democracy among them.

   Commenting on the report of the Senate committee investigating the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment tragedy, Enang said the chamber would equally consider the report alongside other pending reports within the remaining part of the 7th Assembly.

   Senator Atiku Bagudu, who chaired the investigative panel, had submitted the report to the Senate since May 28, 2014, but it was not considered until it went on break. This delay in adopting the report has since provoked insinuations that the Senate might not consider the document because some key players in the recruitment exercise were alleged to have strong connections with some powerful government officials.

On the lingering PIB, Enang, whose committee has the duty to schedule legislative activities for consideration on the floor of the Senate, said the chamber would be unfair to Nigerians if it fails to pass the bill as already presented by the committee.

“We will either remove any contentious aspect or vote on them and then pass the bill. It will be unfair to Nigeria if we do not pass the bill,” Enang stated.