Ika Weekly Newspaper views as saddening the development that in the past few months, the Senator Ahmed Lawan led 9th National Assembly has been in the news for the wrong reasons.
First, it was the asymmetrical passage of the long-delayed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which against all known logic and reason allocated 3% to the host community- a provision that currently enjoys more burden than goodwill.
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While Nigerians particularly the people of the Niger Delta were recovering from the shock precipitated by the ill-fated legislation/provision, NASS again delivered yet another unpatriotic legislation to the masses. This time around, the National Assembly (NASS) voted against electronic transmission of election results in Nigeria by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In our view, the deliberate decision by the National Assembly to vote against electronic transmission of election results has not only sent a dangerous signal of intent to rig elections in the country but dispatches a message that if what happened during the 2019 general election in the country was a challenge, that of 2023 may be characterized as a crisis.
In all these, we are tempted to ask; what is the NASS thinking about the future of this nation? Will the National Assembly come reputed for making legislation that will help Nigerians live under the rule as embodied in our constitution or continue to fail future generations by leaving them with Laws/Acts far diminished from what we inherited from our forebears?