The House of Representatives on Wednesday declined consideration of second reading of a Senate bill to protest against what lawmakers described as the Red Chamber’s persistent failure to give concurrence to many House bills pending before it.
The senate bill seeking to establish, was listed on the Order Paper for second reading, but rejected during plenary after many lawmakers argued that Senate rarely considers bills originating from the House.
The House Leader, Julius Ihonvbere, had moved a motion for the second reading of the bill after it was called up by Speaker Abbas Tajudeen.
Abbas invited the Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, to second the motion, to which he did, but with reservations.
Chinda said he would second the motion “reluctantly”, noting that numerous bills of the House seeking concurrence are currently in the Senate without consideration.
“I will reluctantly second the motion for the second reading of this bill,” he said.
While Chinda was about to take his seat, another lawmaker, Awaji-Inombek Abiante, from Rivers State also raised concern over the House bills pending concurrence at the Senate, informing that House that two of his bills have been in the Red Chamber since 2024.
“Mr speaker, till now, they have not been listed for concurrence. The same thing happened to my bills in the 9th assembly, where throughout that assembly, the senate did not consider the bills that were passed from the house and sponsored by me,” he said.
“I do not know how we will continue with this kind of relationship, Mr speaker. Well, let it not look as if we are slowing down the progress of governance in this country.
“We should step down the consideration of this bill. And probably, you will find out from them what the problems and the challenges are and why they do not consider bills coming from the house of representatives. If the reasons are not cogent enough, we should reciprocate”, he said.
Also speaking, Ahmed Jaha (APC, Borno) said the Senate does not consider bills from the House “in most cases”.
He suggested that the House committee on Rules and Business and that of the Senate should sign a deal to ensure they consider bills from both chambers expeditiously.
But the Speaker at this point intervened, noting that similar arrangements had been made in the past but.
“The clerk told me that we have 146 bills that are with the senate. And I, as a person, have more than 10 bills. Some have been there for more than six months. We don’t know what is really happening,” Abbas said.
Other lawmakers who spoke on the matter also called for the Senate bills to be shut down until the upper chamber began to reciprocate by considering their bills as the House had always done to theirs.
Consequently, Abbas asked Chinda if he was willing to withdraw his earlier secondment of the motion, a request he accepted.
The bill was subsequently stepped down following a voice vote from the majority of the lawmakers.
That impasse over the Senate’s failure to consider House bills dates back to the previous assemblies as similar complaints had been raised by the House in the past.
Lawmakers have consistently raised concerns that bills emanating from the house are rarely given attention by the upper chamber.
