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House of Reps to reconvene next week over PIB, Electoral Act, others
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said on Saturday the House would reconvene plenary next week to address several bills currently before the lawmakers.
The speaker, who stated this at a national strategy retreat organised by the Young Parliamentarians Forum (YPF) of the National Assembly held in Abuja, said the bills include the Electoral Act and Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), among others.
The lower legislative chamber suspended the plenary a few weeks ago to consider the 2021 budget.
Gbajabiamila said the retreat came at a time of a new and intense wave of restiveness sweeping across every part of our country.
He said the youth desired a rapid and progressive change in the structure of the country and governance.
The speaker said: “We all know the House suspended plenary to consider the Budget which is a yearly thing. We did this to give time to pass the budget and maintain our January to December budget cycle.
“But I do intend to reconvene the House to consider a couple of very important things that will affect Nigerians such as the Electoral Act, the PIB, and more importantly the bills that are already in the system concerning the development of the youth.
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“So we will hopefully by next week take one or two days to consider those bills and others.
“I will also want to encourage the young parliamentarians that we will give you all the support necessary.
“You will agree with me that many times when we talk about the constitution, the makeup of Nigeria when we talk about the structure, when we sing the National Anthem, when we talk about the pledge, we always refer nostalgically to our founding fathers.
“Many of them were not even fathers at that time, they were extremely young in their 20s.
“So I think it is time we stopped making reference only to our founding fathers or let those references be few.
“But let’s start talking about our modern fathers and mothers, those of us here and the young people out there, this is your time, this is your moment and it is important that we seize it.”
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