From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Female lawmakers from Anambra State led the pack in the sponsorship of bills as they posted a total of 141 bills in the first two years of the 9th National Assembly. Conversely, 14 lawmakers from Jigawa State were able to come up with only 22 bills in the same period under review.
These were some of the highlights of the second batch of NASS Report Card released by OrderPaper Nigeria, focusing on Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Ondo, Nasarawa, Jigawa and Bauchi States.
Executive Director, Order Paper Nigeria, Oke Epia, said the release on the six states was a build-up on the release of the report cards on Wednesday, July 28 for Abia, Delta, Ekiti, Plateau, Sokoto and Borno states.
The midterm report card series is in continuation of the consistent data-driven periodic analysis of performance of the National Assembly and its members undertaken by OrderPaper Nigeria and focuses on bills sponsorship in the first two years of the senators and members of the House of Representatives.
In the batch just released, three senators from Anambra State sponsored 78 bills, which is the highest from the 36 states. Senators from Bauchi and Jigawa states sponsored five bills each. Eleven members of the House of Representatives from Anambra State sponsored a total of 63 bills in the first half of the 9th National Assembly, while nine members from Ondo State sponsored only 15 bills in same period, the report said.
Two of the three senators from Anambra State – Uche Ekwunife and Stella Oduah – who posted the highest number of bills in two years are women with 58 bills between them.
Seven members of the House of Representatives from Jigawa State had no bill in two years, while three senators have five bills between them.
Some members have no bills sponsored in two years of the four-year tenure, while others have made concerted efforts in sponsoring reasonable number of bills. Similarly, there is high performance variation between new and returning members of parliament, particularly in the House of Representatives.