NASS may extend resumption date beyond September

Federal lawmakers may extend their resumption date from the earlier September 25 to sometimes in October, National Daily has gathered.

Recall that the National Assembly went on recess on July 24 and fixed resumption date for September 25. But there has been pressure on the leadership of the national assembly to reconvene in order to consider some requests made by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The president had asked the lawmakers to approve N242 billion for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of the 2019 polls.

However, National Daily gathered that some lawmakers are already pushing for the extension of the September date to October because the two major political parties – the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) – have their primary election in September and October.

“The joint committees still have a long way to go. The joint committee on INEC after their assignments will pass everything to the appropriation committee which will bring the report to the leadership,” Enyinnaya Abaribe, senator representing Abia south, reportedly said.

“The leadership of the two houses would have to meet and decide on when to reconvene and it must be on the same day. From the way we are seeing it, there is no way we could reconvene until after the primaries which will even extend to the first week in October.”

On his part, Shehu Sani, senator representing Kaduna central, said reconvening the national assembly on September 25 would be “an exercise in futility.”

“Nobody would come back to the senate or house of representatives when primaries are ongoing,” the Kaduna senator said.

Also, Ahmed Lawan, senator leader, said a quorum would not be formed in the upper legislative chamber if it reconvenes on the resumption date because the senators would be in their constituencies participating in primary elections.

“I will also agree with my colleagues who feel that we can extend beyond the 25th because the primaries of almost all the parties will have to take place towards the end of September and early October,” the Yobe senator said.