PROCEDURES FOR THE PASSAGE OF A BILL IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

WHAT IS A BILL?
A bill may come as an idea from any member of the National Assembly, the general public, interest group, and the three arms of government, viz; Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary.
However, according to The New Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language International Edition, the word “Bill” is defined as the draft of a law, while the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines a Bill as a written suggestion for a new law that is presented to a country’s Parliament so that its members can discuss it. Perhaps the most concise definition of a Bill is provided by the Dictionary.com which defines a Bill as a draft of a proposed law presented for approval to a legislative body.
Section 58 (1) of the 1999 Constitution provides that:
The power of the National Assembly to make laws shall be exercised by bills passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives and, except as otherwise provided by sub-section (5) of this section, assented to by the president.

The foregoing section confers on both chambers of the National Assembly the power to make laws through the instrumentality of Bills. Furthermore the law making process is subject to Legislative procedure which is guided by Standing Rules/Order of the each chamber of the National Assembly made pursuant to section 60 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which further empowers the National Assembly to regulate its own procedure. The said section empowers the National Assembly to adopt procedures through orders or rules of the House to conduct its own affairs.

TYPES OF BILLS:
There are two main categories of bills: public bills and private bills. While public bills deal with questions of national interest, the purpose of private bills is to grant powers, special rights or exemptions to a person or persons, including corporations.

Public Bills
Public bills may be initiated by a Minister, in which case they are referred to as “government bills”. They may also be initiated by private Members, in which case they are called “private Members’ bills”.

Executive Bills:
An Executive or government bill is the text of a legislative initiative that the government submits to Parliament to be approved, and possibly amended, before becoming law. Such bills relate to a matter of public interest and may include financial provisions. The bulk of the bills passed by the National Assembly since 1999 are Executive bills. These include the Appropriation Acts, the NDDC Act, The ICPC Act etc.

Private Member Bills:
A private Member’s bill is the text of a legislative initiative that is submitted to Parliament by a Member of the Parliament who is not a Minister, to be approved, and possibly amended, before becoming law. Most bills of this type originate in the Senate, and the House of Representatives but regrettably an insignificant number of them end up as laws.

Private Bills:
The purpose of a private bill is to exempt a person or group of persons, including a corporate person, from the application of a statute or grant a special power or status to a person or group of persons. Bills seeking charters of organisations fall under this category. In the United Kingdom such bills may not be introduced by a Minister, and must be founded on a petition signed by the persons who are interested in promoting it. The distinction between a public bill and a private bill is primarily a function of the purpose of the bill. Bills that seem to be both public and private in nature are referred to as hybrid bills. While British parliamentary practice allows this type of bill, that is not the case in the Canadian Parliament. Canadian parliamentary procedure requires that all bills be classified as either public bills or private bills. When a single bill contains both private bill and public bill considerations, it is dealt with as a public bill.

PROCEDURES FOR PASSAGE OF A BILL
The two chambers of the National Assembly each has its rules as said earlier which regulates its procedure. The Rules state the procedure and stages which every Bill must go through to become a law.

Forwarding a Bill
According to the rules of both chambers, every Bill shall be forwarded to the Senate President or the Speaker of the House of Representatives under a covering letter personally signed by the sponsor(s) of such Bill and sent to the Rules and Business Committees of the two chambers for scheduling for the first and subsequent readings. It is also the duty of the Rules and Business Committees of both chambers to cause such Bills to be gazetted for the records of the House and for the public to see the details. In most cases all Executive bills go through the legislative procedure concurrently. Bills normally go through three readings in line with the rules of procedure of both chambers. For instance, (find the relevant Senate Rule) 2007 provides:

Every bill shall receive three readings previous to its passage, which readings shall be in three different days, unless the Senate unanimously directs otherwise and the Senate President shall give notice at each reading whether it is first, second or third.
First Reading
At the first reading, the clerk of each chamber shall be called upon by the Presiding Officer to read the short title of the Bill. The Presiding officer is expected at this stage to read the short title to the Bill and declare that the Bill have been read the first time. At this stage there is no debate or comment by members whatsoever. The reading is done to simply inform members that the Bill has been introduced and received. After the first reading the Committee on Rules in each chamber shall schedule the bill for second reading.

Second Reading:
Unlike the first reading which is just an introduction attracting no debate or comment, during the second reading, the Senate and the House are expected to debate the merits and general principles of the Bill after the majority leader had moved a motion “That the Bill be now read a second time” as it is the practice, the motion that the Bill be read a second time must be seconded by another member. If the Bill is a Private Member Bill, the sponsor will move the motion himself. If a bill has more than one sponsor, the lead-sponsor moves the motion.

The Rules of both Houses of the National Assembly are that during the debate at this stage the motion for the second reading of any bill, a Member can propose an amendment without notice to the question “That the Bill be now read a second time” by leaving out the word “now” and replacing it with “upon this day …months” It can be three months, six months etc. An amendment may also be moved leaving out all the words after the word “That” so as to add the words stating the object and motive on which the Member is predicating his/her opposition to the motion. However, such words must be restricted to the principles of the bill and not extend to the details of the bill which is something for another stage in the progression of the bill.
When the debate on the motion for the second reading is concluded and amendments disposed of, the chair is expected to put the question on the second reading: “That this bill be now read a second time” Once this question is agreed to, the Clerk shall read the long title to the bill” This is the rule in both chambers of the National Assembly and is applied to every Bill.

Committee Stage:
Section 62 of the Constitution empowers the Senate and the House of Representatives to set up and maintain special, ad hoc or standing Committees with clearly spelt out jurisdictional competences and may delegate any functions it thinks fit to such Committees. Therefore when a bill has been read a second time, it is committed to a Standing Committee of that House, unless the House on motions made and agreed to commits it to the Committee of the whole House. The rule is that such a motion shall not require notice but must be made immediately after the bill is read a second time and must be proposed by the Leader of the House. The President and Speaker have the discretional power to allocate a particular Committee and their decision is final.

But where a Bill falls within the jurisdictional competence of more than one committee, such a Bill is usually referred to the Committee having dominant jurisdiction while the other committees involved shall be constituted into sub-committees to consider the bill and report to the main committee on sections of the bill touching on their jurisdictions.

For instance, the rules of the Senate with regard to the scope of amendments in Committee provide:

Any Committee to which a bill is committed shall have power to make such amendments therein as they shall think fit, provided that every amendment shall be relevant to the subject matter of the bill and to the subject matter of the clause to which it relates; but if any such amendments shall not be within the title of the bill, they shall amend the title accordingly, and shall report the same specially to the House.

However, nothing in the rules of either House of the National Assembly empowers a Committee to decide whether a Bill shall be passed into law or to decide any matter which is the within the legislative competence of either House of the National Assembly, the power of the Committee only extends to making recommendations which may be adopted or negatived by the whole House.

Sometimes a Committee a bill is referred to is given a specific time within which to report to the House. Where the Committee is not able to finish its work within the time specified, it can come back to the House to ask for extension of time. But a committee upon consideration of the bill with amendments (if any) it proposes shall be placed on the House calendar for consideration on a date determined by the committee on Rules in each chamber.

Public Hearing:

Committee Of The Whole:
Committee of the Whole as the name implies is the Committee of all the entire members of the House. According to the rules of both Houses, the chairmanship of the Committee of the whole is the Deputy Senate President or the Deputy Speaker, mutatis mutandis. When the House has a non-controversial bill, the Committee of the whole may take it up immediately, but where the bill for consideration is a controversial Bill, sufficient time is given for Members to prepare and present their contributions. It is during the Committee session that the technical details of a Bill is properly considered by the House.
There are two ways a bill can be considered by the Committee of whole:
1. Where a bill as a result of a decision of the House after its second reading is assigned to the committee of the whole House to treat the bill rather than a standing or special committee.
2. The second situation is where a Bill, after second reading, is passed to a standing or special Committee for consideration.
The procedure is that a motion is proposed by the Majority Leader of the House for the House to resolve into the Committee of the Whole, the motion is then seconded by another member and voted upon. If the motion is agreed to, the House then resolves to Committee of the Whole. This is followed by the presentation of the Committee’s report by the relevant Committee Chairman or the deputy or any member of the Committee if both the Chair and Deputy are absent. Thereafter the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole will call up the clauses of the Bill one after the other and if there are no amendments proposed by members or amendments proposed have been disposed of, the Chairman shall proceed to put the question: “That the clause or clauses as amended do stand part of the Bill” Once the proceedings have been concluded at the Committee of whole, the Chairman, according to the rules puts to the House the question: “That I do report the bill (or the bill as amended) to the House”. The question shall be decided without amendment or debate.
Insertion of New Clauses:

The Report Stage:
This is the stage where the report of the decision of the Committee of the Whole will be made. The Leader of the House moves the motion “That the Chairman do report the bill” and the question is decided without amendment or debate.

Third Reading:
The third reading follows the reporting of the bill from the Committee of the Whole. At this stage, minor amendments may still be proposed if any and disposed of, after which the bill shall be ordered to be read the Third Time forthwith, or upon such a day as may be set or appointed. If the amendment is a serious or fundamental amendment requiring further legislative action, a motion for re-committal may be proposed and if agreed to, the Bill may not be read the third time until the motion for re-committal is disposed of.

What happens on the third reading is that the Leader of the House moves that the Bill be read the third time. The question is then put without any debate and if agreed to, the presiding officer shall call upon the clerk to read the long Title of the Bill. After the presiding officer has read the long title of the Bill, he shall declare the Bill read the third time and passed.

Clean Copy
After the third reading of a bill a copy of the bill as passed called the “clean copy” signed by the Clerk of the House and countersigned by the Presiding Officer of that House is forwarded by the Clerk of the House to the Clerk of the corresponding House requesting the concurrence of that other House. Where the other House concurs with the version of the bill sent to it. The Clerk of the corresponding House retains the bill and sends a message to the originating House that the corresponding House has agreed to the Bill without amendment.

Where however the corresponding House fails to concur with the originating House, the corresponding House in turn seeks the concurrence of the originating House and if the originating House does not concur to the corresponding House’s amendments, the corresponding House now requisitions a conference of both House to reconcile the differences.

Conference Committee:
A conference committee is an ad hoc joint committee of a bicameral legislature, which is appointed by, and consists of, members of both chambers to resolve disagreements on a particular bill. While such committees are common in the United States Congress and other U.S. legislatures, they are no longer in use in the Parliament of the United Kingdom or most other bicameral Westminster system parliaments. In the U.S. Congress, the conference committee is usually composed of the senior members of the standing committees of each House that originally considered the legislation.
The National Assembly like the US Congress still makes use of Conference Committees to reconcile differences in the versions of the bill passed by both Houses. The House seised with the consideration of a Bill normally requisitions a Conference in order to resolve the differences and recommend agreements on the contentious areas of the bill.
The Conference Committee members(conferees) are normally selected by the Presiding Officers of each House of the National Assembly pursuant to the Rules of the respective Houses. The conferees (also known as managers), must reach agreement on the clauses of the bill, before the bill can be passed. The duty of Conference Committee on any bill is to deliberate only on areas of disagreement between the House and the Senate. The Conference Committee is expected to embody their recommendations in a “Conference Report” reflecting the compromise between the versions of the bill passed by both Houses, it has no power to insert in its report any matter not committed to it by either House or strike out from the bill any matter agreed to by the House or Senate.

The Conference Report is subsequently sent to each House for further legislative action. The Conference Report must be adopted by both chambers without any amendment, if not adopted as presented, the bill must go back to conference and new conferees appointed. Dissenting views are not entertained in a Conference Report. The Rules and Business Committee of each chamber schedules the Conference Report for Presentation and places it on the Order Paper for that day. Upon presentation of a Report a motion to accept or reject it can be proposed, if the motion to accept the report is negatived, the Report is considered rejected. However if the motion to accept is agreed to, then debate on the Report will commence. Recommendations and amendments may be voted on separately.

Where both Houses adopts a conference report, each House have to pass the bill again incorporating all conference amendments adopted by the Houses since a bill cannot have two separate versions. Where the two Houses could not arrive at a compromise another conference committee is requisitioned to reconsider the differences.

Conference meetings are normally open to the general public unless by a resolution of the conference the meeting for the day is closed to the public.

ASSENT AND ENROLMENT OF BILLS

Presidential Assent/veto:
After the passage of the Bill by both Houses of the National Assembly a copy of the Bill is prepared for the President’s Assent.

Section 58(4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 provides:
“Where a bill is presented to the President for assent, he shall within thirty days thereof signify that he assents or that he withholds assent”

Overriding Presidential Veto:
Subsection 5 of the same section provides:
“Where the President withholds his assent and the bill is again passed by each House by two-thirds majority, the bill shall become law and the assent of the President shall not be required”

Enrolment:
The process of enrolment actually starts from the time the National Assembly has concluded legislative action on a Bill as discussed above. The Clean copy of that Bill embodying all the amendments agreed to by both Houses of the National Assembly is certified by the Clerk to the National Assembly and endorsed for the for the Assent of the President.

Section 2 of the Acts Authentication Act provides that:
The Clerk to the National Assembly shall forthwith after enactment, prepare a copy of each Bill as passed by both Houses of the National Assembly embodying all amendments agreed to, and shall endorse on the Bill and sign a certificate that the copy has been prepared as prescribed and it is a true copy of that Bill.

Subsequently, the Clerk to the National Assembly forwards the Bill and the Schedule thereto in duplicate to the President for his Assent. The President signs the Bill into law if there are no objections. A copy of the Bill with the Schedule thereto are returned to the Clerk who causes the Bill to be printed by the Government Printer in triplicate on vellum or parchment paper of enduring quality. The Clerk retains one copy for the records of the National Assembly, forwards one copy to the President and the third copy is forwarded to the Chief Justice of Nigeria for enrolment in the Supreme Court as an Act of the National Assembly.