• Reject bill on paternity leave
• Nothing must happen to Melaye, Dogara warns security agencies
Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives has said the 2018 Appropriation Bill will be passed into law, next week.
Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazak Namdas stated this to National Assembly Correspondents, yesterday.
The House spokesman said the 2018 budget will be laid in the chamber, next Tuesday, and passed within the week. The chamber had earlier scheduled passage of the budget for April 24.
“We worked hard to meet the deadline. I am not speculating. By the Grace of God we will pass it,” Namdas said.
He, however, evaded questions on whether the Green Chamber will include the $496 million spent by President Muhammadu Buhari for the purchase of 12 Tucano Aircrafts, in the 2018 budget, as requested by the president.
Meanwhile, the House has thrown out a bill seeking to grant optional paternity leave to married men in Nigeria. The bill, which was sponsored by Edward Pwajok, sought to provide for two weeks optional paternity leave for married men employed in the country.
Leading debate on the bill, Pwajok said there is need for fathers to be granted paternity leave, when they have new babies.
He contended that just as women, men also go through stress and other challenges, when they have new babies.
He noted that already, Lagos and Enugu states, as well as Access Bank Plc, have started granting paternity leave to married men.
“The increasing involvement of fathers in childcare, as well as care for the mother, without corresponding paternity leave, leaves most fathers stressed with attendabr health hazards and ultimately low productivity at work,” Pwajok emphasised.
Also, Speaker Yakubu Dogara has warned heads of security agencies involved in the case of Senator Dino Melaye, that nothing untowards must happen to him.
Dogara said if anything happens to the senator, heads of security agencies involved would be held responsible.
Said Dogara: “All I can say is that nothing can happen to the senator. If anyone in this country commits an offence, the law is there for the person to be prosecuted or arraigned in court within the ambit of the law.
“I don’t think the law supports a situation whereby someone is in a dire health situation and is being arraigned; most especially that that person is a senator.
“It is unthinkable that a distinguished senator or an honorable member of this house would run away from trial. So, my admonition to the security agencies is to do everything possible to ensure that his life is secured first before prosecution.”
“Prosecution cannot come at the expense of death and that is very important because if anything happened to him, the responsibility will lie on the security agencies.
“That is without mincing of words; because I have not seen a country where someone will be arraigned in a stretcher; where he is not even in the right frame of mind to even take a plea.
“What use is it if you’re taken someone to court and he cannot plead guilty or not guilty. So, the emphasis should be on his health first.”
If you are working hard,how can you pass the 2018 budget by next week. You have drawned this useless country back too much. What is the meaning of having you there? Lazy parliamentarians.
There is no need of having senate and house of reps at the same time comsuming monies. Those money being consumed by both hoses could have been used for education.