The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, has pledged to work with a coalition of three civil society organizations and the Ministry of Justice advocating a speedy passage of anti-corruption bills still pending in the National Assembly.
The SSA spoke during the advocacy visit to his office by representatives of the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and Ministry of Justice.
The purpose of the visit, according to Uchenna Arisukwu, Programme Manager at Centre LSD, was to inform the SSA about the extent of work the Open Government Partnership (OGP) law review team had done in relation to the laws before the National Assembly and to request him to help engage the leadership of the legislature in securing a speedy passage of the bills aimed at strengthening the fight against corruption in Nigeria.
The bills include the Whistleblowers Protection Bill, Public Interest Disclosure and Witness Protection Bill, Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990, Repeal and Re-Enactment Bill, Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill and Proceeds of Crime Bill.
Sulaiman Dawodu of the Justice Ministry said the coalition would need the SSA to lead the working group and position the advocacy strategy towards future engagement with the leadership of the legislature. Mrs. Adebola Lashman, a retired Director in the Ministry of Justice who was part of the Ministry’s team, stated the importance of building advocacy around Executive Bills.
This, according to her, was necessary because of the emergence of interest groups who were usually not in favour of such Bills and would always constitute a stumbling block.
Mr. Enang commended the coalition for the initiative, and especially for showing interest in anti-corruption laws. He said the legislature was not entirely to blame for the delay in the passage of the anti-corruption Bills into laws, noting that the lack of trust among the anti-corruption agencies was the major culprit. He said oftentimes agencies appear before committees to oppose Bills, and this would normally lead to delays before the work was completed.
He urged the coalition to also focus advocacy on cabinet ministers who had developed a penchant for marketing their Bills to the legislature, instead of passing them to the presidency so that the Federal Executive Council can review them.
