Opeyemi Bamidele, leader of the senate, has faulted claims
by opposition parties that the national assembly is a rubber-stamp institution.
Bamidele, who represents Ekiti central, said the national
assembly could not have held over 39 engagements with the executive on the 2024
tax reform bills if it were merely doing the bidding of the presidency.
The lawmaker spoke through a statement issued by the directorate
of media and public affairs in his office.
The statement drew attention to a series of interventions
carried out by the legislature “in the overriding public interest”.
According to Bamidele, the 10th national assembly,
inaugurated on June 13, 2023, adopted a strategy of constructive engagement
with the executive to address national concerns.
He said despite this approach, the legislature has faced
repeated accusations from opposition parties — particularly the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), and New Nigeria Peoples Party
(NNPP).
Bamidele said the claim had no justification and did not
reflect the facts of how the legislature functions.
He said the tax bills were introduced in November 2024, but
only passed six months later, following intense scrutiny.
“If we are actually a rubber-stamp parliamentary institution
as most opposition political parties have claimed, the bills would have been
passed within one week or two weeks after they were laid before us,” he said.
“In the process of passing the bills, both executive and
legislative arms held over 39 engagements to trash grey areas in the Tax Reform
Bills, 2024 before both chambers of the National Assembly eventually passed the
bills.
“During this period, the engagements involved diverse
interests and stakeholders across the federation. The tax reform bills could
have been rushed within one or two weeks.
“But it took us six months to secure input from all critical
stakeholders — civil society organisations, professional bodies, religious
leaders and leaders of thoughts.
“The process includes all behind-the-scenes efforts,
closed-door meetings and subtle disagreements that took place between the
legislature and the executive before their passage.
“We also organised public hearings just to accommodate
inputs from diverse interests.
“We extended our engagements to all captains of industries
to enable us pass the tax reform bills that will stand the test of time; meet
the needs of our people and ensure the overriding public interest in the
exercise of our constitutional mandates.
“At the end of it, we found a way of resolving all issues
around the tax reform bills in the overriding public interest. But people do
not know all the efforts and sacrifices we made to ensure the effective
delivery of public goods. They were only eager to label us a rubber stamp when
the bills came from the executive.”
Bamidele said the national assembly preferred
behind-the-scenes engagement over loud opposition for its own sake.
He also referenced the 2025 appropriation bill, which he
noted was laid before the joint session of the national assembly on December
18, 2024, but was not passed until February 13, 2025.
He explained that if the legislature were a rubber stamp,
the budget could have been hastily approved by the end of 2024 to maintain the
January–December budget cycle.
“We did not give the budget back to the executive until
February 2025. We did a lot of due diligence. Every committee of the National
Assembly duly engaged heads of agencies to properly scrutinise the budget also
in the overriding public interest,” he said.
“We are working in the interest of the people. We are always
taking into consideration the need to ensure good governance in all our
undertakings and the need to use legislative frameworks to promote good
governance in the federation.”
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