NBA chair faults Borno Assembly on laws
The Borno NBA Chairman made the statement during an exclusive interview with Kanem Trust in reaction to the recent passage into law by the House, the Grant of Pension to Governors and Deputy Governors Law 2005, Amendment Bill 2009; and the Local Government Law 2000, Amendment Bill 2010, which awaiting signing into law by the […]
The Borno NBA Chairman made the statement during an exclusive interview with Kanem Trust in reaction to the recent passage into law by the House, the Grant of Pension to Governors and Deputy Governors Law 2005, Amendment Bill 2009; and the Local Government Law 2000, Amendment Bill 2010, which awaiting signing into law by the governor.
The first law grants the governor and his deputy free cars/drivers, free medication for family, free houses and staff, free foreign medical trips, free electricity and entitlement to the reviewed pension and gratuity scheme after retirement, while the second bill confers on the governor the powers to create additional emirates out of the existing ones.
According to Barrister Mshelia, compliance with legislative House Orders where bills were not expressly passed and readings not bridged, but allowed to go through rigorous deliberations that permits public inputs before laws are enacted to ensure that those laws are in the interest of the people for which they are made, saying stakeholders’ contributions through public hearings were imperative for the promotion of inclusive governance and wide participation, all of which ishe said, would eventually lead to the passage of good and people-oriented laws.
He however observed that “legislative procedures are at the discretion of lawmakers” and that “breaching House Orders do not invalidate the enacted laws” except where the substance of the law breaches the constitution of Nigeria or infringes on the fundamental rights of members of the society that it becomes disputable. “For example, the Local Government Amendment Law that confers powers on the governor to create emirates can only be challenged if the subjects of an emirate feel that the creation of another emirate from an existing one is going to challenge the continuous peaceful existence of the former. And government has to realize that though emirate councils are concepts of traditional institutions that develop over a period of time, they are not units of development, because unlike local government areas which are the basis for citing developmental projects, emirates are institutions of customs and tradition,” the NBA chairman noted.