By Christiana Ekpa
A bill for an act to amend the Pension Reform Act, 2014 to exempt personnel of National Assembly Service from the contributory pension scheme and to establish the National Assembly Service Pensions Board failed to pass third (final) reading.
This was sequel to the disagreement of lawmakers over the procedure followed in making the proposed legislation at plenary on Wednesday.
The House in the committee of Whole, chaired by Ahmed Idris-Wase, the deputy speaker had two weeks ago considered and approved the report on bill and it was subsequently slated for third reading.
But when the bill was mentioned for passage, deputy chairman of the committee on Pensions, Hon. Bamidele Salam raised a point of order urging the Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila to step down the third reading of the bill.
Salam said any attempt to exempt certain classes of people from the contributory pension scheme may lead to the collapse of that system.
He said: “I don’t see the need to exit the national assembly from this contributory pension scheme. The overdoing consideration has been that any attempt to exempt certain classes of people from the contributory pension scheme may lead to the collapse of that system. This will open a flood gate of other demands by other critical sectors.
In the same vein, another member of the committee, Hon. Bem Mzondu (PDP, Benue) said the right procedures to bill’s passage was not followed.
He reminded the speaker that he did not grant the committee their request for a public hearing to be held on the bill before sending it to the committee of the Whole.
He said:”The right procedures were not followed. We requested for a public hearing, we wrote to your office but our requested was not considered. If we open this flood gates of exit, many requests will come in.
“It means the pension scheme will collapse. Because every agency wants to exit the pension scheme. I plead this should be stepped down.”
Opposing his colleagues, the deputy speaker, Wase who refered to the standing order of the House, said the speaker has the right to commit any bill to Committee of the Whole.
He insisted that not all bills must go through public hearing, queried his colleagues opposing the bills passage on if they don’t care about the welfare of the people serving them.
“This bill didn’t come today, there was first and second reading and today we are committing it to third reading. Not all bills must go through public hearing. I don’t know why any matter that pertains to national assembly we are the first to raise issues, is that we don’t care about the welfare of the same people that are serving us?,” Wase said
Agreeing with Wase, the chairman House committee on Rules and Business, Hassan Fulata said the Bill was brought to the relevant committees but they could not do their job and was discharged and recommitted to the committee of the Whole.
On his party, the bill’s sponsor, Olododo Cook said members of the committee were not honest about not being carried along, adding that the lawmakers were not around during consideration by the committee of the whole because they were busy with their re-election campaigns.
Before ruling, the speaker, Gbajabiamila admitted that the Pension committee approached him with a notice for a public hearing to be held on the bill but he could not grant their request at the time due to paucity of funds.
He said: “You cant single out one committee, there are other committees that hasn’t submitted report in months. The matter was brought to my notice for public hearing but there was no fund at the time. Public hearing should be held for matters like this so all interests will air their views.”
The speaker ruled that the third reading of the bill should be stepped down and brought back Thursday or Tuesday next week and advised members of the committee on pension who feel aggrieved, to liaise with the chairman rules and business to resolve the issues.
