The Senate on Thursday clarified its stance on the proposed tax legislation, the Tax Reforms Bills, declaring that it has not suspended action on them.
Leader of the Senate, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, expressed strong reservations about media reports suggesting that the Red Chamber, at Wednesday’s plenary, decided to stay action on the Bills.
Checks revealed that during the Wednesday session, presided over by Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, the upper legislative chamber directed its Committee on Finance to stay action on the proposed legislation. The Deputy Senate President based the decision on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive, mandating the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), to engage with lawmakers to review contentious provisions in the Bills.
He said: “It is on this note that we extended our view to the executive arm of government, and it was agreed that there should be a forum to sit down to look at the areas that are creating disagreements to resolve them so that the entire country will remain united in our effort to solve our problems.
“Before the introduction of these bills, we know we’ve been faced with several problems and insecurity that we’ve been trying to solve. The president has been trying, and we’re also working with him to solve issues about our economy, which is in line with global economic problems.
“We also agree that we shouldn’t allow anything else to aggravate our country’s problems.
“It is on this note that it has been agreed by the executive and also by us that there should be a forum that will sit with the Attorney General of the Federation so that we can sit down and sort out all these problems in the interest of this nation.
“It’s on this note that the committee on finance that the bills have been referred to should put on hold further action on it—public hearing and other issues—until we resolve these issues.”
However, the Senate Leader, in his submission, expressed strong reservations about media reports that the Senate had suspended legislative action. Senator Bamidele maintained that, being Executive Bills, there was no way the Senate could halt action on them, declaring that it was a misrepresentation of the legislative process by a section of the media. He specifically cited Arise Television News.
He said: “What was reported on Arise Television news was that this hallowed chamber had suspended further consideration of the tax reform bills before the Senate.
“The reporter even invited the governor of Nasarawa State and pointedly told the governor that, ‘now that the Senate had withdrawn.’ He used the word ‘withdrawn.’
“Mr. President, what am I trying to say here? We do not move from one TV station to another. The privilege that we have is the floor of the Senate. This is where we do our deliberations; this is where we make the law; this is where we do effective representation of our people. And if you have issues to clarify, this is also the floor that we have rather than issuing press statements.
“Mr. President, we just passed our votes and proceedings, which is a reflection of our deliberations of the previous legislative day being yesterday (Wednesday). Nowhere in our votes and proceedings was it stated that we suspended further deliberations on the tax reform bill, because we did not, and I feel it would be important to place on record: that the Senate did not suspend or withdraw.
“This Senate did not suspend and does not intend to suspend deliberations on the tax reform bills.
“Mr. President, this is simply my response. It was a misunderstanding of the legislative process for anybody to have even reported that we had withdrawn the bills. These were executive bills transmitted to us by the executive arm of government through the office of Mr. President. It’s only the executive arm that can withdraw these bills. They are not private member bills sponsored by any senator, so no senator is going to withdraw the bill, and there’s no reason for these bills to be withdrawn in the legislative process.”
While acknowledging the composition of an ad-hoc committee to interface with the Office of the Attorney General, Senator Bamidele further clarified that the Senate Committee on Finance would proceed with its assignment and submit within the six-week timeline it was given.
“It is normal that some people will have concerns; it is normal that people will sit around those concerns and discuss; that is why, in its wisdom, this Senate, in referring this matter to the Senate Committee on Finance, gave them as much as six weeks. That was our instruction.”
The Senate Leader, in an apparent reference to pressure from certain quarters, declared that the Red Chamber would not succumb to halting the legislative process on the contentious tax reform bills.
“We were clear about what we were doing. The Senate Committee on Finance is in charge of public hearing. But we set up an ad hoc committee as a further legislative action to, on our behalf, interface.
“Even the President of the country, I mean, called on us to please, I mean, interface with the Office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, which we also would have done in our public hearing.”
He emphasised that any attempt to intimidate the Parliament would be undemocratic, stating, “Any attempt from any quarter to intimidate the Parliament will be undemocratic, and we will not allow ourselves to be distracted. But we will encourage consensus. We will encourage discussions, engagement at all levels. But we will not, we cannot be bullied into adopting a certain procedure.”
During the plenary, the Senate reviewed the composition of the ad hoc committee tasked with interfacing with the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the Minister of Justice.
The Senate President, while reviewing the committee’s composition as constituted by his deputy, noted that it did not reflect the structure agreed upon during Wednesday’s closed session. Consequently, the Senate removed Chief Whip Senator Tahir Monguno and all principal officers from the committee.
Credit: Nigerian Tribune