The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said the House will begin the process of amending the 1999 Constitution in 2020. The House will also amend the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), he said.
The Speaker, who spoke at a retreat organised for Chairmen of Standing Committees of the House organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), said both the constitution review and the PIGB are part of the bills that the House would prioritise in 2020.
He said the House will do everything within its powers to give Nigerians the best in terms of laws that would promote peace and good governance in the country.
He challenged chairmen of committees to work as a team with their deputies and members of the committees to achieve the objectives set out in the House legislative agenda, stressing that Nigerians have high expectations on the Legislature, hence they must work hard to meet such.
He said “we have been elected at a time of great upheaval at home and abroad. We are confronted with great peril; oil prices have fallen and refuse to go back up, our population growth continues to outpace economic growth, we are besieged on all sides by rising insecurity and its consequences.
“How do we build an economy that is attractive to investment; that creates jobs to meet our present needs, and grows apace to meet future demands?
He announced that the sum of N2 billion was approved in the 2020 budget by the National Assembly for the take-off of a legislative library, saying the Legislature, as the conscience of a nation, needs a befitting library.
“Where it is the responsibility of the executive to implement programmes and execute projects, it falls to us to articulate through legislation, the broad objectives of our nationhood, and through oversight, hold the executive accountable to those objectives. The standing Committees you each lead are the principal instruments of legislation and oversight.
“Whatever we are, whatever we will achieve, and everything we will be remembered for in this House of Representatives depend on how well your Committees function and how effectively you serve as leaders of those Committees,” he said.
