Joint Committees
Senator Lawan: Electoral Act amendment ready by early 2021
Senate President Ahmed Lawan on Wednesday said an amendment to the nation’s electoral law would be ready by next year. At the public hearing on the repeal of the Electoral Act 2010 and enactment of the 2020 Electoral Act, held in Abuja yesterday, Mr. Lawan said that the Electoral Act Amendment Bill will be passed by the first quarter of 2021. Mr. Lawan added that the passing of this legislation would enable the 2020 Electoral Act to be tested ahead of the elections to check its efficacy. “A free fair and credible election in 2023 is doable; we just have to remain focused,” Mr. Lawan said. “I have participated in several elections since 1999 and none of them has been the same. I have had different experiences. It means we always have some new emerging problems.” The joint hearing was organi...
House of Reps probes immigration documents of Chinese in Nigeria
The investigation which began on July 20 in Abuja, is being conducted by the joint house committees on Interior, Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring and Commerce. The Speaker of the house, Rep. Femi Gbajabimila, recalled that in April, photos and videos which went viral on the social media allegedly depicted institutionalised racial discrimination, maltreatment of Nigerians in China. He said it also showed xenophobic assaults, embarrassments, illegal detentions and forceful evictions of Nigerians and other Africans living in Guangzhou, China. Gbajabimila said that he summoned the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Zhou Pingjian precisely on April, 10 to register Nigeria’s displeasure with the incident. “Subsequently, the House of Representatives on Tuesday, April 28, issued a strong...
774,000 jobs: National Assembly can’t suspend selection process – minister
The Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo (SAN), says members of the National Assembly cannot stop the selection process of the 774,000 Special Public Works Programme jobs. He stated that the Joint Committees on Labour of both the Senate and the House tried to “control the programme as to who gets what, where and how”. The minister insisted that he would not surrender the programme to the lawmakers’ control “since their powers under the constitution does not extend to that”. He, therefore, directed the state selection committees to proceed with the recruitment process. Keyamo, in a statement issued after his meeting with the NASS committee ended in a fiasco on Tuesday, said, “There was a misunderstanding between us when they questioned why I did not privately submit the programme to ...
