Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives has said it is making moves to retool its legislative agenda to reflect current socio-economic realities in the country engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, stated this on Monday, when he received some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) yesterday, in Abuja.
The House had, last year, rolled out a 15-point agenda to guide legislations on key sectors of the economy.
However, Gbajabiamila noted that when the legislative agenda for the ninth House was conceptualised, the parliament never envisaged the outbreak of COVID -19 pandemic and the attendant disruptions.
According to him “right now, we are in the process of reworking our legislative agenda. Last year, no one saw this (COVID-19)coming. So, our legislative agenda presumed that it was going to be business as usual. But we have to rework it, in keeping with the time we have found ourselves.”
Gbajabiamila, while seaking on the contentious Control of Infectious Diseases Bill, said the House would hold a two -day public hearing, at a yet to be determined date, where members of the public and interest group will be able to make their inputs into the proposed legislation.
“On the Control of Infectious Disease Bill, we are aware that many of the comments it generated are genuine, some were political and some were clearly based on the misunderstanding of the bill but we can not ignore any and that is why we are taking it to public hearing.
“It is going to be conducted over two days and because we don’t want to endanger anyone’s life, all the Covid-19 protocols would be observed in a hall that is supposed to take 300 people, we will have about 40.Those who could not make it the first day would have the opportunity to be there the second day.
“The public hearing would be physical because this is all about transparency and accountability. We don’t want to endanger the lives of Nigerians. It will be beamed live on TV and Radio but those that can not make it to the public hearing will have the opportunity of sending their memorandum to the House. The Bill that will be passed by the House will be the aggregate of the submissions of Nigerians”, he stated.