By Ehichioya Ezomon
_”In the absence of any punishment for bad behaviour, indiscipline festers in a circlical, uncontrolled motion!”_ (©️Ezomon 2025)
On Tuesday, October 21, and Thursday, October 23, 2025, respectively, Nigeria’s House of Representatives passed off what’s obviously a dereliction of duty by members of its committees, some of whom failed, for over a year, to report on Referral Bills assigned to them for preliminary legislation within 75 days.
In a unanimous adoption of a motion, the House, at separate plenaries, formally discharged the 22 committees from the bills and committed same to the “Committee of the Whole” for completion of the legislative actions.
Reports by New Telegraph on October 21, PUNCH on October 22, and PREMIUM TIMES on October 23, listed 10 of the recalled bills and the defaulting committees the House discharged on October 21, as follows:
• The Niger Delta Development Commission Act (Amendment) Bill, 2023 (HB. 154), referred to Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission on February 29, 2024; Factoring Assignment and Receivables Financing (Establishment) Bill, 2023 (HB. 516), to Committee on Banking Regulations on October 15, 2024; and Interpretation Act (Amendment) Bill, 2023 (HB. 27), referred to Committee on Justice on November 1, 2023.
• The Nigerian Authors Trust Fund (Establishment) Bill, 2023 (HB. 28), referred to Committee on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values on October 18, 2023; National Park Service Act (Amendment) Bill, 2023 (HB. 575), to Committee on Environment on November 26, 2024; and National Commission for Decommissioning of Oil and Gas Installations (NC-DOGI) Bill, 2024 (HB. 1968), referred to Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) on December 5, 2024.
• The Poverty Alleviation and Skill Acquisition Centre (Establishment) Bill, 2023 (HB. 75), referred to Committee on Poverty Alleviation on December 12, 2024; Federal Polytechnics Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024 (HB. 2114), to Committee on Federal Polytechnics and Higher Technical Education on March 4, 2025; Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau Act (Amendment) Bill, 2025 (HB. 2025), to Committee on Special Duties and Aviation on May 14, 2025; and Chartered Institute of Public Health Studies (Establishment) Bill, 2023 (HB. 161), referred to Committee on Health Institutions on June 6, 2024.
Similarly on Thursday, October 23, 2025, as PREMIUM TIMES reported same day, the House discharged the committees from 12 Referral Bills, and committed same to the Committee of the Whole for consideration. They include:
• The Nigerian National Honours and Merit Award Commission Bill, 2023, referred to the Committee on Inter-Governmental Affairs on October 23, 2024; National Primary Education Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2023, to Committee on Basic Education and Services on May 8, 2025; and The Voting Rights of Nigerian Citizens Living Outside Nigeria Bill, 2023, referred to Committee on Electoral Matters on July 9, 2024.
• National Assembly Infrastructure and Property Agency (Establishment) Bill, 2025, referred to Committee on House Services on February 18, 2025; Federal Polytechnics (Amendment) Bill, 2025, to Committee on Federal Polytechnics and Higher Technical Education on March 4, 2025; and The Federal College of Nursing and Midwifery, Zaria (Establishment) Bill, 2025, referred to Committee on Health Institutions on March 11, 2025.
• Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria Act (Amendment) Bill, 2025, referred to Committee on Agricultural Colleges and Institutions on March 12, 2025; Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria Act (Amendment) Bill, 2025, to Committee on Livestock Development on March 18, 2025; and The Federal Medical Centres Act (Amendment) Bill, 2025, referred to Committee on Health Institutions on March 18, 2025.
• National Assembly Service Pension Board Act (Amendment) Bill, 2025, referred to Committee on Public Service Matters on May 8, 2025; Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024, to Committee on Electoral Matters on May 15, 2025; and Petroleum Training Institute, Ibeno, Akwa Ibom State (Establishment) Bill, 2023, referred to Committee on Petroleum Resources (Training Fund).
Under Section 60 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as updated), the Senate or the House of Representatives of the National Assembly “shall have power to regulate its own procedure, including the procedure for summoning and recess of the House.”
The Senate or the House of Representatives, under Section 62(1), “may appoint a committee of its members for such special or general purpose as in its opinion would be better regulated and managed by means of such a committee, and may by resolution, regulation or otherwise, as it thinks fit, delegate any functions exercisable by it to any such committee.”
Whereas the appointing House, in subsection (2), “shall fix the number of members of a committee appointed under this section, their terms of office and quorum,” such House, in subsection (4), cannot “delegate to a committee the power to decide whether a bill shall be passed into law or to determine any matter which it is empowered to determine by resolution under the provisions of this Constitution, but the committee may be authorised to make recommendations to the House on any such matter.”
Going by Section 62(1) of the Constitution, the House of Representatives sets up committees under its Standing Orders; and under Order 18, Rule 3(g) of the Standing Orders, refers bills to committees for initial legislation before consideration by the Committee of the Whole.
Order 18, Rule 3(g) of the Standing Orders stipulates that: “Any matter referred to any Committee shall be treated within 30 days, otherwise the Committee shall stand discharged after 60 days, and unless an extension of up to 15 days is granted, the matter is committed to the Committee of the Whole or another Committee as determined by the Speaker.”
As an AI Overview notes, Order 18, Rule 3(g) of the Standing Orders is guided by: Time Limit: Any matter referred to a committee must be treated within 30 days. Discharge: If the committee does not act within the 30-day period, it is automatically discharged from the matter after 60 days. Next Step: Unless granted an extension of up to 15 days, once a committee is discharged, the matter is committed to the Committee of the Whole for consideration.
It’s unclear if the 22 committees were granted extensions of 15 days, thus totaling 75 days to turn in their reports; but having failed to treat the referred bills within the stipulated period of 30 days, then 60 days, the House, on October 8, 2025, with Deputy Speaker Ben Kalu (APC, Abia) presiding, gave the committees a one-week ultimatum to deliver their reports.
Noting that despite instructing the committees before the last recess to turn in reports, but that the level of compliance remained poor, Mr Kalu said that failure to meet the deadline would compel the House to “discharge non-performing committees and forward their bills to the Committee of the Whole for expeditious legislative action.”
He urged the committee chairs to take the warning seriously, as “such delays not only slow legislative productivity, but also affect the timely passage of bills that could drive national development.”
The committees having defaulted again, the House, via a motion by the Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Business, Hon. Francis Waive (APC, Delta), seconded by the Minority Leader, Hon. Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers), withdrew, and committed the bills to the Committee of the Whole, to complete the legislative actions.
The House, “Notes that the Bills were read separately a second time in 2024 and referred to Committees of the House for legislative actions; and
“Aware that the Committees are yet to present Reports on the Bills, contrary to the provisions of Order Eighteen, Rule 11(5) of the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives, to wit:
‘(5) Any matter referred to a Committee shall be treated within 30 days; otherwise, the Committee shall stand discharged after 60 days except upon a motion for an extension of time which shall not exceed fifteen days and the matter committed to the Committee of the Whole or any other Committee as the Speaker may decide from time to time.’
“Resolves to: discharge the above-mentioned Committees on Bills referred to them and commit same to the Committee of the Whole.”
To put it mildly, the House was dissatisfied and disappointed with the committees’ failure to perform an important function of enacting legislation for passage into law – the reason the legislators have about 75 days at the committee stage to bring legislation to completion.
The natural and logical question(s) would be the consequence(s) for the committee members! What kind of sanction(s) is recommended for such a dereliction of duty? Was the penalty imposed? Did the House simply slap the members’ wrists, and ask them to mend their ways? What precedent will that set for other House members, who, in future, may go AWOL, and fail to adhere to the Standing Orders on committee assignments?
No reports indicated that members of the committees were reprimanded, sanctioned, or punished for the dereliction of duty. Instead, the bills were withdrawn and same committed to the Committee of the Whole for consideration, in line with Order 18, Rule 11(5) of the House Standing Orders, which reaffirms Order 18, Rule 3(g) of the Standing Orders.
The House decision, seeming to reaffirm its resolve to enforce compliance with its Standing Orders and prevent delays that “have bogged down legislative business,” was a procedural consequence for the committees’ failure to meet the stipulated deadline, rather than a sanction against the members.
Besides accountability to the House, it would’ve been appropriate to publicise the defaulting committee members’ names for their legislative laxity, which’d expose them to the public, and their constituents as not adequately representing them in the National Assembly.
In the absence of any punishment for bad behaviour, indiscipline festers in a circlical, uncontrolled motion! This is the message the Nigerian House of Representatives passes on to its members: That there’s no consequence(s) for dereliction of duty on committee assignments. And the beat goes on until the House decides to brake with indiscipline!
* _Mr Ezomon, Journalist, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
