Opeyemi Bamidele: Senate passed 25 bills, reached 115 resolutions in one year

Opeyemi Bamidele, majority leader of the senate, says the upper legislative chamber has passed 25 bills that have been signed into law and reached 115 resolutions in one year.

In an article titled “Exploits of the 10th Senate”, on Thursday, Bamidele said as of June 11, about 477 bills have been introduced to the senate.

The 10th senate, under the leadership of Godswill Akpabio, is marking one year of inauguration.

The Ekiti senator said the senate has screened and confirmed 215 nominees for different political offices at the request of President Bola Tinubu.

“For instance, as of June 11, 2024, our records revealed that at least 477 bills were initiated since the 10th Senate kicked off its activities precisely on June 13, 2023,” Bamidele said.

“Of this figure, only 25 bills were fully passed into law while others are currently at different stages before the Senate. Comparatively, this figure only accounts for 5.24% of the entire bills introduced within the timeframe.

“Many people may measure our performance based on the number of bills that were fully passed into law. Different reasons that account for the low number of fully enacted legislations.

“This can be ascribed mainly to other issues of highly fundamental national priority that occupied the attention of the Senate. Put differently, it is purely due to the imperatives of attending to other obligations as required by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.

“Aside the 25 fully enacted legislations, no fewer than 275 bills (57.65%) were read first time within the timeframe, about 135 (28.32%) awaiting first reading; 45 (9.43%) awaiting the second reading; 43 (9.02%) currently at the committee stage and three bills (0.63%) were refused on different grounds. While only 13 (2.73%) of the total bills originated from the executive arm, 464 (97.27%) are private member bills.

“Apart from the bills, the Senate arrived at 115 resolutions, which are far-reaching in consequence; profound in their significance to our economic development and strategic to the cohesion, growth and stability of our Nation.

“Each of these resolutions arose from motions of national importance, which different Distinguished Senators sponsored after due diligence was conducted.”

Bamidele said within the timeframe, the senate received and treated petitions from members of the public on diverse matters of grave concern.

The lawmaker said the senate had also initiated “diverse processes with a clear and well-defined mandate”.