Single term: Electorate will decide our position–Reps

Posted by admin House, Legislature Saturday, September 10th, 2011

Chairman, House Ad-Hoc Committee on Media and Publicity, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele

The House of Representatives on Friday said the Nigerian electorate, not the legislature, would decide whether lawmakers would endorse President Goodluck Jonathan’s single term proposal or not.

The House reacted to the issue in Abuja ahead of Tuesday’s (September 13) reconvening of the National Assembly after its six-week annual vacation. The presidential proposal seeks a single term of six years for the president and governors.

The National Assembly had already gone on break when the Presidency made the issue public last August.

In a SATURDAY PUNCH interview, the chairman of the House Ad-Hoc Committee on Media and Publicity, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, stated that the lawmakers would retire to the 360 constituencies in the country to consult with the electorate immediately Jonathan forwarded the proposal to the legislature.

Opeyemi said, “This matter will be decided by our constituents who sent us here; we shall consult with them to seek their views before we take a stand.

“Whatever decision we eventually take on the proposal shall be the position of our constituents after we have consulted with them.”

He noted that the National Assembly had not received any bill on the subject, adding that until a bill was presented by Jonathan, the proposal would remain in the realm of imagination and speculation.

Bamidele added, “We don’t have the bill yet; there is no official communication to that effect. But, whenever it comes, we shall consult with our constituents and their views will decide our position; whether to support it or not.

“So, I can say that the issue is not ripe for discussion until it comes before the House.”

Apart from the single term proposal, which is a constitution amendment bill, the House on its own had already assured Nigerians that it would carry out further amendments to the 1999 Constitution.

Bamidele told SATURDAY PUNCH that the chairmen and members of the reconstituted standing committees of the House would be announced as soon as the legislature reconvened.

“We have to pursue our oversight functions rigorously this time round; that is why we have to put the committees in place to start working immediately,” he added. The 84 standing committees of the House stood dissolved after the Sixth Assembly wound down on June 4, 2011.

The Seventh House has been without standing committees since its inauguration on June 6, 2011, with the exception of four ad-hoc committees set up by the leadership to carry out some internal duties.

The appointment of committee chairmen and members is the sole responsibility of a special committee, Selection Committee, which is headed by the Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal.

Findings by Saturday Punch showed that some major bills presented to the House before the vacation would be treated.

Among them were the Petroleum Industry Bill, National Climate Change Commission Bill and the National Youth Corps Act (Amendment) Bill.

-Punchwp_posts