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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Senator seeks ouster of Wabara, others over Labour bill
THE passage of a bill to amend the Trade Union Act last week by the Senate is generating ill-feelings and rancour among its members.
In fact, some senators are calling for the head of the leadership of the upper chamber. But Senate President Adolphus Wabara has defended the passage, saying it was in the national interest.
Senator Uche Chukwumerije who was the first to raise alarm over the bill had a running battle with Wabara on the day the labour bill was passed.
But a more serious crack developed over the weekend among the senators with many describing the passage of the bill as a "rape on democracy."
In a statement yesterday in Abuja, Senator Farouk Bello (ANPP, Kebbi) called for the nullification of the passage of the bill commencement of impediment process against the Senate leadership.
His words: "My heart bleeds and I feel severe pains when by our own actions we are gradually endangering the survival of our hard-earned democracy.
"We have an option, an honourable option of backing the wishes and as pirations of teaming millions of Nigerians who elected us into office, or succumb to the wishes of a dictator.
"It is with the full conviction that majority of senators will choose the former option that I today believe more than ever before that the current leadership of the senate must give way to a more credible one, if our hard-earned democracy is to be saved."
However, Wabara has reacted to media reports that due process was not followed by the Senate leadership in passing the Trade Union Amendment Act last Thursday.
In a statement by his chief press secretary, Mr. Henry Ugbolue, yesterday in Abuja, Wabara said that when the bill was considered in detail and read the third time, 36 senators were present in the chamber.
"This, of course, is one senator more than the constitutionally approved quorum of 35 senators," he said.
According to Wabara, even Chukwumerije, who raised issues on the "speedy" passage of the bill, confirmed on the floor of the senate that due process was followed.
Chukwumerije (PDP-Abia), had taken the floor after the bill had been passed, to mockingly congratulate his colleagues for the urgency with which the bill was handled, and alluded t the judgment of history.
Wabara said no senator raised the issue of quorum opposed a series of voice votes taken on the floor while the bill was being considered clause by clause.
"It is a statement of fact that no senator raised objection when the President of the senate asked that the bill be read the third time," he said.
Wabara said that in passing the bill into law, the upper legislative chamber largely ratified the recommendations of its committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity, which thoroughly worked on the bill.
He said that, among other things, the committee held a well-attended public hearing where stakeholders exchanged ideas on the new bill for three days.
He said that labour leaders across the country had been commending the senate for yielding to the demands of a number of leaders in the country in considering and passing the bill.
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