Senate rejects controversial grazing bill

Senate rejects controversial grazing bill


The Senate, on Wednesday, rejected three bills seeking to establish
grazing reserves in different parts of the country.
The bills, including one sponsored by Senators Barnabas Gemade,
Chukwuka Utazi and Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso, sought the
establishment of ranches and grazing reserves in different states of
the country.
But the Senate rejected the bills when the Deputy Senate President, Ike
Ekweremadu, raised a constitutional point of order to knock them out.
Ekweremadu said the items being introduced in the bills were neither
accommodated in the exclusive not concurrent legislative lists, adding
that accommodating the bills would amount to a waste of legislative
time.
Senator Gemade had sponsored a bill, entitled: “A Bill for an Act to
provide for the establishment of National Ranches Commission for the
Regulation, Management, Preservation and Control of Ranches and for
connected purposes while Senator Utazi introduced another, entitled:
“A Bill for an Act to control the Keeping and Movement of Cattle in
Nigeria and for related matters thereto.”
Senator Kwankwaso, on his part, introduced a bill, entitled: “A Bill for
an Act for the Establishment of grazing Areas Management Agency
and for other related matters, 2016 (SB 292).”
According to the bill by Kwakwanso, an agency is to be created for the
control management and demarcation of national and local grazing
areas, ranches, and stock routes, while protecting public investment
for economic and social benefits.
Senate Leader, Senator Ali Ndume, had suggested that the three
senators  harmonise the bills into a single entity but the lawmakers
refused the suggestion.
While opposing the suggestion, however, Senator Gemade said the
bills should be treated on their individual merits.
But the Deputy Senate President struck at that stage, when he raised a
constitutional point of order to alert the Senate that the issues
contained in the bills were outside the constitutional powers of the
Senate.
“I will like to see somebody to show me anywhere in the exclusive list
or concurrent list that has given us powers to legislate on this matter
because they are not in existence,” he said.
The Senate leader, however, failed in the bid to persuade the Senate to
allow the bills pass the second reading, so that the relevant Senate
committees could decide their fate, as the senators rejected the
suggestion.
Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, in his submission, said he had
thought that the sponsors of the bills would agree for harmonisation
because of their similarity, adding that since the agreement could not
be reached, there was no need to keep the bills in custody.
“Before the point of order of Deputy Senate President, I had already put
a suggestion that these bills came on the order paper based on the
discussion I had with the two sponsors that these bills be
consolidated.
“It is clear from the discussion today that it is not so and my view is
that since the basis by which they came on the order paper has
changed, the way forward is for us to step it down from the order paper
of today. I will want the leader to move that we step it down from the
order paper of today to another legislative day,” he said.