The Senate on Thursday said that it did not suspend deliberations on the Tax Reform Bills as reported in some quarters.

Leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele, made the clarification when he raised Senate Point of Order 42, during plenary.

Raising the order, Mr Bamidele said that it was reported by a news medium that “the hallowed chamber suspended further consideration of the Tax Reform Bills before the Senate.”

He said, “Nowhere in our votes and proceedings was it stated that we suspended further deliberations on the tax reform bills, because we did not. I felt it will be important to place on record that this Senate did not suspend or withdraw. This Senate did not suspend and does not intend to suspend deliberation, consideration of the tax reform bills. It was a misunderstanding of legislative process for anybody to have even reported that we have withdrawn the bills. The bills were executive bills; transmitted to us by the Executive Arm of Government, through the office of Mr President. It is only the executive arm that can withdraw these bills. They are not private member bills sponsored by any senator. So no senator is going to withdraw the bill and there is no reason for these bills to be withdrawn. In a legislative process, it is normal that some people will have concerns.’’

According to him, it is normal that people will sit around those concerns and discourse, hence, in its wisdom, the Senate referred the matter to the Committee on Finance and gave them six weeks for report.

He stated, “Six weeks is long enough in a country that wants progress for a consensus to be reached for anybody who has concern to sit down and allow such concern to be addressed in overriding public interest. So the essence of what I am saying is that it is important that members of public are patient with us. They understand the legislative process that we have to follow. They understand our role in the constitution. Any attempt from any quarter to intimidate the parliament will be undemocratic and we will not allow ourselves to be distracted. We will encourage consensus. We will encourage discussions and engagements at all levels.”

In his remarks, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio said that the members of the National Assembly were elected to work, which was the work of lawmaking, in the overall interest of Nigeria.

Mr Akpabio said that the work was not done through social media, committee or any forum of any nature, but according to their conscience, in the best interest of Nigeria.

He said that the moment the bills went through second reading in the Senate, it simply meant that the bills were alive.

According to him, the next procedure is for the committee on finance to commence the process of consultations and public hearings, with a view to bringing recommendations back to the chamber 

“But in the wisdom of the Senate yesterday (Wednesday), we had, in a closed session, set up a committee to be headed by the minority leader before the passage of the second reading. That committee was an internal mechanism of the Senate, different from the committee on finance. I think that was what was announced that the committee should immediately move into work,” he said. 

(NAN)