Dogara: House Introduced 1064 Bills, Addressed 610 Public Petitions In 2 Years

In a feat of legislative activism, the 8th Assembly introduced 1064 bills,  and addressed 610 Public Petitions in the last 2 years, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, has said.

Giving an appraisal of the activities of the 8th Assembly under his leadership in the last 2 years, he stressed that this achievement surpassed those recorded by previous assemblies.

"In terms of core mandate of lawmaking, we have remained a bastion of legislativze activism. Indeed, members of the 8th House of Representatives are in keen competition with one another in fashioning out legislative solutions to myriad of problems facing the nation. That is why in all facets of law-making, we can comfortably and conveniently assert that we have broken all records," he said.

Relying on available statistics, he reeled out the figures as "total number of Bills introduced so far are 1064 out of which Executive Bills are 50, Senate Bills transmitted to the House – 21 and Private Members Bills – 993. A total of 126 Bills have been passed by the House and the others are at various stages in the legislative mill. 27 Bills have received Presidential assent and a lot more are in the pipeline.

Public Petitions received in the last two years are over 610 in number and the Committee on Public Petitions conducts Public Hearings on these petitions almost every week to ensure citizen access to the legislature.

Each of the achievements highlighted above is unsurpassed by any previous Assembly."
The Speaker also noted the sheer volume of the bills attests to the vibrancy of the House in its attempt to legislate on key areas of the national life at a very trying time, saying whereas it is immediately difficult to measure the impact of these Bills, a thorough examination of them shows the interest of the House in getting the economy out of the current recession that has affected both large and small businesses as well as families across Nigeria.