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Court declines to restrain NASSon
Labour bill
� Senate holds public hearing on it today
By Chesa Chesa,
Rotimi Fadeyi, Bassey Udo
and Uchenna Awom
(Abuja)
An Abuja High Court on Tuesday
declined to stop the NationalAssembly from deliberating or passing the Labour
bill into law. The court concluded
that it would haveinterfered in the internal affairs of another arm of
government if it did so.
Justice Hussein Baba Yusuf held that
the motion brought bythe Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and 58 labour unions was
premature, as thebill had not been passed into law.
He, however, granted leave to the
plantiffs to enforce theirfundamental human rights to freedom of association
and assembly and freedomfrom discrimination. But that the leave would not
operate as a stay or arestrain order stopping the National Assembly from
deliberating on the matter.
The court adjourned hearing in the
substantive suit toSeptember 3.
The Senate began the second reading
and debate on the billon Tuesday.
It was preceded by a closed-door
session during which thelawmakers discussed whether to go ahead with the
reading or to shelve it togive the bill �more time to mature,� as well as allow
for moreconsultations with their constituencies.
They decided that because the Senate
would soon go onrecess, to allow the committees conduct visits across the
country, work on thebill should start at once.
A public hearing on it by the
Committee on Labour andProductivity is scheduled for today which the
legislators felt would take careof the wider consultations.
Also at the closed-door session, the
Senate leadershipacknowledged before other senators that President Olusegun
Obasanjo hadpresented the bill to the Upper House since last year, but that it
chose tokeep it under wraps.
The senators reconvened in open
plenary and debated the billafter which Senate President Adolphus Wabara
directed the Committee on Labourto present a report on it on Thursday.
However, two members of the House of
Representatives accusedthe National Assembly of betraying the confidence of
Nigerian workers.
Haruna Yerima and Uche Onyeagocha
made their views known atthe opening of the nationwide mass rally held in Abuja on Tuesday by the NLC to
protest the bill.
Said Yerima: �Since approval was not
given for thisrally to hold in the National Assembly as earlier planned, I and
my colleaguehave decided to come and demonstrate our solidarity with Nigerian
workers. Theway things are, if the labour bill is passed the way it is , it is
going to bea betrayal of the confidence of the Nigerian masses by the National Assembly who
expect them to stand upand defend their rights under the constitution�.
Onyeogocha, who said this was the
time for Nigerians tofight back to protect the interest of the NLC, which has
fought several battleson their behalf, urged the workers to call their
representatives to takespecific positions on the issue.
The rally earlier scheduled to hold
at the premises of theNational Assembly to persuade it to set aside the
proposed law had to beshifted to the Labour House premises following separate
letters from the Clerkof the National Assembly, Ibrahim Salim and Senate
Majority Leader, Dr DalhatuTafida, denying NLC request.
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Copyright�
2004. All Rights Reserved. Designed
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