SENATE: Grazing Bill Suffers Setback, as it Fails to Pass Second Reading

Proceedings in the Senate on Wednesday have shown that the controversial Graz­ing Reserve Bill might die a nat­ural death as attempts to pass it for second reading suffered a ma­jor defeat.
Three related bills, indepen­dently sponsored by Senators Ra­biu Kwankwaso, Barnabas Ge­made and Chukwuka Utazi, on grazing reserve and other related issues, were listed on the Senate’s Order Paper for debate and pos­sible passage for second reading.

Senator Kwankwaso’s bill is titled: “A Bill for an Act for the Establishment of Grazing Areas Management Agency and Oth­er Related Matters 2016 (SB 292)”.
On the other hand, Gemade’s bill is tagged: “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, 2016 (SB 293)”.
The third bill, sponsored by Senator Utazi, is named: “A Bill for an Act to Control the Keep­ing and Movement of Cattle in Nigeria and for Related Matters thereto, 2016 (SB 311)”.
The fear that the bills might fail started at the plenary when the Senate Leader Ali Ndume, upon reading out the three bills in their order of enlistment on the Order Paper, suggested that they should be harmonised, consolidated and presented as one bill for consider­ation by the Senate.
In a swift reaction to Ndume’s suggestion, Gemade asked the Senate to allow the three bills to be presented separately, so that senators could treat them on their merit.
Before this, Senator Kwank­waso announced the withdraw­al of his bill on “Establishment of Grazing Areas Management Agency,” saying that his action was based on the consultation he undertook.
The Senate President Buko­la Saraki said that before the bills were enlisted for second reading, he had thought that their sponsors would agree on their harmonisa­tion since two of the three spon­sors had held consultations with him and favoured the idea of con­solidating them into a more com­prehensive bill because of their similarity.
He, however, maintained that since such anticipatory agreement did not happen, there was need to stand down the bills.
Accordingly, he advised that the bills be stepped down for an unspecified legislative day.
While this contemplation was on, the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, raised a con­stitutional point of order, argu­ing that, by entertaining the bills, the Upper Chamber was acting beyond its jurisdiction.
He observed that the issues proposed in the bills were not within the purview of the Na­tional Assembly, saying that it is the duty of the states to legis­late on grazing reserves, ranches and control of movement of cat­tle in their various geographical enclaves.
Ekweremadu said: “Issues at stake here are neither in the Ex­clusive List nor in the Concurrent List. I believe therefore that it is a residual matter; it is for states to decide how to deal with it. I be­lieve that the matter here concerns everybody given the level of car­nage and the conflicts going on in different states so I feel the con­cern of my colleagues but unfor­tunately, we do not have powers to legislate on matters relating to livestock in this Assembly.
“It is a matter reserved for the states. So, I believe that both the bills for Kwankwaso, Gemade and Utazi is beyond the reach of this National Assembly and should be accordingly withdrawn so that the states under the consti­tution should be able to deal with the matters which the constitu­tion has prescribe for them. 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 of existence,” he said.
At this point, Ndume ap­pealed to his colleagues to not to allow emotion to becloud their constitutional responsibility of making good laws for Nigerians.
He said: “I just want to join the Deputy Senate (DSP) to re­mind us of Order 81 and also ap­peal that we are the Senate. We should not allow any emotional or whatever to guide us. The point that the DSP raised is a very im­portant one. If we don’t have the power to make laws, if it is so, I think there is no need to even start arguing on it. But having said that; if that is not even the case and our Rule 81 defines condition for the second reading of bills.
“On the order of the second reading of the bill, a motion may­be made that the bill be read the second time and a debate may arise covering the general merits and principles of the bill. What will now know before us even my­self to be very candid is just the heading of the bill which attract­ed us. We should trash them out on their merits if that is possible. Mr. President if we don’t have the powers to do it then we will just waste our time but if we have, I think we should listen to the mer­its and principles.”
In his final remark, Saraki in­sisted on his earlier directive that Ndume should move a motion to stand the bills down for another legislative day.