CLAIM: The Niger state Governor did not assent into law private member bills in the 8th Assembly of Niger state House of Assembly, says Honorable Madaki Malik Bosso
CONCLUSION: FALSE
FULL TEXT:
At the valedictory sitting [a valedictory sitting is the last sitting of a Legislature which marks the end of a legislative term] of the Niger state House of Assembly to end the 8th Assembly, the Member representing Bosso Constituency, Honorable Madaki Malik Bosso claimed that in the past four years of the 8th Assembly, none of the private member bills passed by the House of Assembly was assented into law by the Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello.
He said that the only bills passed into law by the Governor were executive bills sent to the Assembly by the executive, blaming the executive of not encouraging the legislators to be proactive.
The valedictory sitting was held on Friday 7th of June.
QUICK DEFINITIONS: A bill is like a proposal or an idea that has to be deliberated upon and passed into law by the National Assembly. Bills are grouped into three categories: Executive, Member and Private Bills.
An Executive Bill is a bill proposed by the Executive (Governor or President) and sent to the Legislature to decide if it should become law or not. A Private Member Bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced to a legislature for deliberation by a Legislator who is not acting on behalf of the Executive branch. A Private Bill is a bill that only affects an individual citizen or group. Each Bill receives consideration based on its urgency and significance for government policy. [For more information, see this article]
VERIFICATION OF CLAIM
After the sitting, The Nation and Dubawa met with the legislator who made the claim, Honorable Madaki Malik Bosso, but he refused to comment. Another move was made to contact him via text messages which were not replied to and calls went unanswered.
Nevertheless, we contacted the outgoing Speaker who is the custodian of all information related to Bills during his tenure and he provided evidence to show that 42 bills were deliberated upon by the 8th Assembly; out of which 22 were Private Member Bills while 20 were Executive Bills.
He, further said that only 25 out of the 42 bills was assented into law by the Governor, adding that 7 out of the 25 assented bills were private members bills.
“The Governor assented to 7 out of the 22 Private Bills passed by the 8th Assembly of the Niger state House of Assembly. Some were returned based on certain observations by the Governor.”
When asked why he did not dispute the claim when the legislator raised it during the valedictory sitting, he said the valedictory sitting was an emotional one at which everyone’s emotions were highly displayed and he just wanted to let it be.
OUR CONCLUSION? The claim is FALSE.
This fact-check was done by a Dubawa Fact-checking Fellow in collaboration with The Nation, the second-most-read newspaper in Nigeria according to a 2011 report by The Advertisers’ Association of Nigeria. To see this article and others, check out: https://thenationonlineng.net/fact-check-was-no-private-member-bill-assented-into-law-by-governor-sani/
