The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) has rejected the 46 bills reportedly passed by the National Assembly.

According to the prodemocracy group, the bills were passed without recourse. “The lawmakers passed the 46 bills within a space of 10 minutes with no sense of reflection about the implication of their action on the image of the country,”TMG Chairman, Ibrahim Zikirullahi, said.

“This disturbing output, coming at a time the seventh National Assembly is winding down in preparation for the inauguration of the eighth Assembly, is indeed the same impunity that became the hallmark of those entrusted with the responsibility of running the Nigerian State in the recent past.
It was therefore not surprising that they ran the country aground.”

His group also condemned the alleged subtle attempt by the lawmakers to promulgate decrees instead of legislating for the good governance of Nigeria.

“We take exception to the use of the nation’s democratic apparatus for acts of legislative rascality, such as the arbitrary passage of the 46 bills. At TMG, we wonder why the 7th Assembly would choose the twilight of its session to embarrass Nigeria, at a time when our country is basking in the glorious milestone of a successful transition,” the official said.

He said the latest move, which is said to cast Nigeria in a shameful light before the global community, was coming from “an excessively overpaid National Assembly that had been a drain pipe, taking a good chunk of the nation’s financial resources, without commensurate results to show for it.”

“TMG finds it disheartening that the lawmakers who are taking so much from the system do not have the character and good conduct to draw the line between what is proper, just and fair and that which is not. Since 2011, when the 7th National Assembly was inaugurated, lawmakers largely helped themselves through impossible allowances in the guise of making laws,”
Zikirullahi added.

He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to refuse assent to these hastily- passed laws and called on Nigerians to be vigilant in order to check characters of those willing to make the country a laughing stock in the global comity of nations.

“The President must send a clear message about his intention to exorcise all vestiges of impunity from our polity by rejecting this attempt to ridicule Nigeria. We also call on all Nigerians to be vigilant in order to check characters who are all too willing to make our country a laughing stock in the global comity of nations on account of their unexamined actions.”

Credit: CAJ News