A Civil Society Organisationn with interest in the performance of legislative houses policy issues in Nigeria, Order Paper, has said the first year of the 10th National Assembly under Godswill Akpabio has witnessed a slow pace of progression of sponsored bills, a significant number of which were proposals recycled from the preceding 9th assembly.
The organisation said the pointers were highlights of the signature performance report card of the national assembly set for release this week.
“The performance report card, distilled through detailed, objective and data-driven analysis of bills processed in the first year of the 10th National Assembly, reveals a significant gap between sponsorship and progression of legislative drafts”, Executive Director and founder of OrderPaper, Oke Epia said in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday.
He stated: “The data further revealed that over half of the bills sponsored in the Senate between June 2023 and May 2024, were recycled from previous assemblies, especially the immediate past 9th assembly. In a similar discovery, nearly one-third of the bills processed in the House of Representatives within the same period were resurrected from the past. This trend raises grave concerns about possible legislative ‘copy-pasting’ and further swirls speculations of merchandising of bills in the federal legislature.
“The analysis by OrderPaper shows that from June 2023 to May 2024, the Senate introduced a staggering 475 bills out of which only 19 have been passed while 416 remain stuck awaiting second reading.
“In like manner, out of 1,175 bills introduced in the House of Representatives in the same period under review, only 58 have been passed while a vast majority of 967 are awaiting second reading.
“Among several other datasets produced by the inimitable OrderPaper analysis, 15 senators did not sponsor a bill while 149 members of the house, which is 12.6% of the total membership, did not sponsor any bills in the period under review. Notably, 62% of these representatives in the green chamber with no bills to their names, are first-time lawmakers.
“The performance report also highlights a troubling lack of focus on critical issues of national importance. Bills related to agriculture and food security make up only 5.8% of the total House bills and 7.3% of Senate bills. Security-related bills account for 7.2% of House bills and 5.4% of Senate bills. Despite the significant challenges faced by citizens in these sectors in recent years, bills addressing these issues remain few, with many not even progressing past the first reading.
“Distinct datasets of the performance report cards will be released on the official website of OrderPaper – https://orderpaper.ng/. Constituents of the 469 members of the national assembly, political and business leaders, civil society organisations as well as the general public are invited to keep tab on the website and social media pages of OrderPaper”.
He however charged citizens to “demand accountability from lawmakers by focusing not just on quantity, but on the quality and impact of their work with respect to bills processing in parliament”, adding that “OrderPaper Nigeria calls for urgent action from legislators, citizens, as well as partners of the parliament to deploy these performance report cards to push for impactful legislative governance…”
