ABUJA – The struggles by Peace Corps of Nigeria, to become an agency of government, received a final blow on Thursday, in the House of Representatives, as its bid to secure an override of Presidential veto on its Bill failed to scale through second reading.
The Bill was amongst those denied assent by President Muhammad Buhari, citing security and funding reasons.
Shortly after President Buhari returned the Bill, the House was unanimous that it was unfair of the President to refuse assent to such a good Bill that would create employment to youths, and vowed to override the President’s veto.
Accordingly, Emmanuel Orker-Jev, House Rules and Business Chairman, represented the “Bill for an Act to Establish the Nigerian Peace Corps to Develop, Empower and Provide Gainful Employment for the Youth, Facilitate Peace, Volunteerism, Community Service, Neigbourhood watch and Nation-Building; and for Related Matters (HB. 89) (Veto Override).”
Orker-Jev argued that the reasons given by the President for refusing to sign were not sufficient as the President never specified the security threat posed by Peace Corps to the country.
The lawmaker said that the organization has existed for almost twenty years now in the country and was doing well as a private organization, without threatening the security.
He added that the issue of funding was not personal to the President, stressing that the Corps was largely a voluntary organization and had done well in that capacity.
Some lawmakers shared his views and pushed support for the Bill, as they argued that the country needed more security agencies established to attend to the internal security challenges.
They were unanimous that government’s idea of recruiting more people into the military to handle internal security challenges was wrong and ill-intended, as the military was primarily not there for internal security assignments.
They said with the growing population of Nigeria, the conversion of Peace Corps to government agency was very imperative, more so as the President never complained about its mandates.
However, majority of the lawmakers who had iinitially agreed that the Bill was good, passed, and transmitted same to the President for assent, suddenly made a U-turn and argued that the President was wiser than them, being a retired Army General and now Commander-In-Chief.
To the shock of many, a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP lawmaker, Ossai Nicholas Ossai, in contributing to debate praised Buhari for rejecting the bill he (Ossai), was said to have earlier supported , asking his colleagues to join the President to reject it.
Excited by his position, Addo Doguwa, the House Chief Whip,(APC), said he was impressed by Ossai’s position and urged his colleagues to ensure that the bill was dead at the second reading stage.
Most of the lawmakers who contributed to the debate that lasted for several hours, did not favour the override of the President’s veto, insisting that doing so would tarnish their image, as there were already allegations that candidates in the Peace Corps were paying N50,000 each to bribe the lawmaker in order to ensure the override.
In an effort to disabuse the minds of lawmakers before putting the question, Speaker Yakubu Dogara, said that the lawmakers deviated from the actual issues canvassed by the President and concerned their debates on who did what.
He tried to convince them that passing the Bill through second reading did not suggest a smooth sail for the veto override, as the House would still need two third majority to override the President’s veto.
While he was making the efforts, the anxious lawmakers shouted him down, asking him to quickly put the question, which he did, and those who voted against the Bill had the day, finally letting to rest the issue of Peace Corps in the eighth Assembly.
