Finally Peace Corps Bill Passed By Senate

Nigerian Senate on Tuesday passed the bill seeking to establish the Nigerian Peace Corps in concurrence with the House of Representatives.

The Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, in its report, which was considered at the plenary on Tuesday, strongly criticised the establishment of the corps.

But the lawmakers adopted the report on the Senate and House of Representatives’ Conference Committee, which was presented by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior, Senator Bayero Nafada.

The NPC bill was passed in the House of Representatives in June 2016, while it was passed in the Senate in November of the same year.

The two chambers set up a conference committee to reconcile the areas of differences in the bill.

But a debate on the bill at the Senate on May 2, 2017, was marred by controversy, forcing the chamber to refer the conference report to the legal committee.

In the report represented by Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator David Umaru, at the plenary on Wednesday, the panel picked holes in the creation of the NPC but said there was the need to reciprocate House’s passage of the bill.

The report said in part, “The powers, functions, etc, of the Peace Corps call for concern and this committee would wish that they are subjected to further examination.

“The creation of jobs through this platform is laudable but this can be achieved by strengthening existing agencies and not necessarily creating a new one so as not to overburden the Federal Government; and that the Committee noted that the House of Representatives has adopted the Conference Report and the need for reciprocity.”