Bill seeking pension for presiding officers of NASS, State Assemblies shot down

A bill seeking to provide pension for presiding officers of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly after their tenures on Tuesday failed to scale through both chambers of the National Assembly.

A bill seeking to provide life pension for presiding officers of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly after their tenures on Tuesday failed to scale through both chambers of the National Assembly.

The beneficiaries of the bill would have included President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy President of the Senate, and Deputy Speaker of the House, as well as their counterparts in the State Houses of Assemblies.

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Both the Red and Green Chambers of the National Assembly, during the ongoing amendment to the 1999 Constitution, unanimously voted against the bill which had the clause seeking for all presiding officers to be placed on life pensions at the end of their tenures, inserted into it.

The particular clause in the bill had read:

“A Bill for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to Provide Pension for Presiding Officers of the National Assembly and for Related Matters.”

However, when the item came up for debate at the Upper Chamber, the lawmakers rejected it outright.

Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, first dropped the hint that it would be rejected when he said, “This bill has conclusively failed.”

At the House of Representatives, the legislators also voted against the bill with 162 members voting for the provision, while 193 voted against and three others abstained.

The bill was thus rejected when the votes failed to meet the required two-thirds or 240 of the 360 members of the House.

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