New Telegraph-Admin 
CHUKWU DAVID writes on how the Senate shut down a bill seeking to create National Road Transport Council and stepped down another seeking to establish South South Development Commission
The Senate, on Thursday July 18, killed a bill seeking to establish a National Road Transport Council on the ground it constituted an undue duplication of functions of other existing Federal Government agencies. The bill was sponsored by the Senate Deputy Leader, Senator Oyelola Ashiru (APC, Kwara South).
The bill which was titled “National Road Transport Council (Establishment) Bill, 2024” was introduced to the Senate plenary for consideration and passage earlier this year. The legislation was to be saddled with the responsibility of regulating the road transport industry and the transport profession in Nigeria.
In the lead debate to the proposal, Senator Ashiru revealed that if signed into law, a council board would be established which shall consist of a board chairman and six members drafted from each geopolitical zone of the country.
He also stated that the board shall be composed of representatives of the ministries of Transport, Commerce and Industry and Aviation, and they shall not be below the rank of a Director.
According to the explanatory memorandum of the bill, the functions of the proposed council include creating an effective regulatory framework on road transport service operators; determining the standard of knowledge and skills required for road transport service operators; encouraging the advancement of education on road transportation; ensuring accessibility of road transport facilities, channels and routes; monitoring the performance of the regulated road transport industry and conducting background check on road transport service operators.
Other functions of the proposed agency are: Registering all road transport service providers and determine the fees for such registration; setting guidelines and general policies for road transport service operators; updating the Federal Government on its activities and progress through annual and audited reports; reviewing progress and suggest improvement within the provisions of the bill and do such other things as are necessary or incidental to the objects of the council under the bill or as may be assigned by the Federal Government.
However, the bill was thrown out after most of the senators observed that the objectives of the bill were already being fulfilled by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIOs), among others.
Objectives of the bill were read out by Senator Tahir Monguno, who was inaugurated as the new Senate Chief Whip after the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) recommended that the former Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, should be sacked for being critical of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Monguno, who stood in for the bill’s sponsor and presented the lead debate, explained that the council would be saddled with the task of policy formulation, setting operational standards, licensing and accreditation, oversight of professionals and advising the government on road transport matters.
The lawmaker emphasised that the proposed legislation would solve problems of the transport sector such as poor regulation and oversight, lack of coordination among relevant agencies, prevalence of substandard and unsafe vehicles, disorderly motor parks and poor professionalism among operators.
Highlighting the statutory functions of the proposed council, Monguno said: “The council will coordinate relevant agencies such as the Federal Road Safety Corps, Vehicle Inspection Office and the Nigeria Police Force to streamline activities and foster synergies.
“It will regulate drivers’ training institutions to ensure they maintain standards and also oversee motor parks, taxi/bus stops, and other transport terminals to promote orderliness. “It will be empowered to license and regulate commercial transport operators to curb malpractices. It will maintain registers of accredited professionals like drivers, conductors, mechanics and managers.”
First to support the second reading of the bill was Senator Saliu Mustapha (APC, Kwara Central) though he pointed out that there was the need to add a more comprehensive framework to the bill. “We need to add a more comprehensive framework to have a more effective road system and coordination.
This is a bill that is in the right direction and I urge all to give it its necessary support,” he said. Also, rising to speak in support of the bill, the senator representing Enugu West Senatorial District, Osita Ngwu, posited that the bill is necessary to ensure that certain policies were put in place for safety of road users. He, therefore, urged his colleagues to support it.
However, it was opposition for the legislative proposal, when the senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District, Victor Umeh, rose to kick against it. He said that apart from the replication of agencies such FRSC and VIO, the bill will also create room for touts to operate freely on Nigerian roads. He said: “I don’t think we have the framework presently.
If you look, you will see that we already have agencies of government that regulate vehicles on our roads. We have the FRSC that works across the federation and we have the VIO that is also involved in the management of our roads. When we pass this bill, it will create room for touts all over the place. So, the existing agencies should be strengthened to do their work.”
Also speaking, Senator Benson Agadaga (PDP, Bayelsa East) faulted the bill, saying that if passed into law, other bills requiring the establishment of councils to manage other transportation systems like railway, air and water would be brought up.
Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo North), also kicked against the bill, arguing that rather than create new agencies which would further burden the Federal Government with funding, agencies such as the FRSC should be scrapped in accordance with the suggestions of the Steve Oronsaye report. He said: “Even the FRSC has not added value.
We must avoid multiplication of agencies. The FRSC is incompetent; we don’t need to create more agencies for anything. We are all brothers and sisters here but I support that this bill be killed.
Senator Kenneth Eze (APC, Ebonyi Central) also said that the bill will ridicule the essence of the President’s approval of the Steve Oronsaye report, which requires the scrapping and merger of government agencies to reduce government expenditure.
The bill was subsequently rejected after it was subjected to a voice vote by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, in favour of the higher number of senators, who chanted “nay”. Consequently, the bill’s journey in the nation’s apex legislative Assembly was truncated by the lawmakers.
In a related development, a bill seeking to establish the South South Development Commission was withdrawn by the Senate the same day. The bill was actually heading for death like the one on National Road Transport Council, but for Akpabio’s intervention. He decided that the bill be stood down when he noticed that majority of lawmakers were opposed to it.
The bill titled, “A Bill for an Act to establish the South South Development Commission, charged with the responsibility to receive and manage funds from the Federation Account Allocation and other sources, donations, grants, and for the integration, development, resolution of infrastructural deficit, militancy, communal crises as well as tackle ecological, environmental problems, and for related matters,” was sponsored by Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong (APC, Cross River South).
No sooner than the lead debate was presented by Senator Benson Agadaga (Bayelsa East) than it was opposed by Senators Adamu Aliero (PDP, Kebbi Central) and Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central). According to them, the proposed commission will amount to a duplication of the existing Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
They advised the Senate to kill the bill, accusing the sponsor of wanting to play on the intelligence of senators by bringing such a bill to the floor. Aliero argued that the South-South and the Niger Delta already have a fully-funded government agency and a ministry to oversee development in the zone.
The senator recalled how the administration of late President Umaru Yar’Adua created the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs in 2007 in addition to the already existing NDDC. “I feel that there is no need to support the second reading of this bill which will make the Senate a laughing stock. It will amount to duplication,” he noted.
Ningi, on his part, said he opposed the functions spelt out for the commission because they were the same as those being handled by the NDDC. “When you compare the NDDC law and this bill, they are the same. It is important that this bill is stood down for further consultation,” he siad. Akpabio, thereafter, called for a vote to step down the bill, which was unanimously endorsed.
