Gbajabiamila seeks professional legal unit for N/Assembly

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila has advocated for the expansion and professionalization of the National Assembly legal department for optimal legislative performance.

The speaker, who expressed concern over the quality of legislation emanating from the National Assembly, said the National Assembly legal department must be strengthened to deliver on its mandate of ensuring clean copies of draft legislation emanating from the legislature.

Gbajabiamila said the decision by the President to withhold assent to some bills passed by the National Assembly is sometimes due to mistakes in drafting the final clean copies of the document.

As such, Gbajabiamila said it has become imperative that the department is manned by professionals and expanded for optimal performance, which he said would eliminate common errors.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Lanre Lasisi, the speaker, during a working visit to the leadership of the National Assembly by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami on Thursday, also allayed fears of vetoing bills rejected by the President.

In agreement with the proposal of the minister on how to fast-track the passage of executive bills, the speaker said that “much of the responsibility of passing laws lies with the National Assembly and going by the number of bills that emanate from here, we pass quite a number of bills.

“In the process of doing that, of course, we cannot rule out the possibility of thoroughness and quality being affected. That is not to say the legislators are not doing their jobs; theirs is to bring forth these ideas.

“Even in advanced democracies, legislative drafting is apart; it’s an art that requires deft professional approach and legislators are not necessarily professional draftsmen.

“In every democracy, much of these works are done behind the scene by professionals. What I’m saying is that in the National Assembly, we need a more robust expanded and professional legal department.”

Earlier, Malami expressed concerns that Nigeria’s laws need to comply with national interest and global realities, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari is keen on addressing key policy issues that will have significant impact on the lives of the average Nigerian, namely the economy, anti-corruption and security.

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He said that the visit is anchored on the need to explore harmonious working relationship with the National Assembly, adding that the justice ministry is proposing to eliminate bottlenecks hindering the smooth passage of executive bills by sending draft bills to the National Assembly for the lawmakers to add their inputs before formal transmission to the lawmakers.