Bill to exit N/Assembly service from contributory pensions raises dust at Reps

The House of Representatives witnessed a heated session yesterday over a bill seeking to exclude the National Assembly Service Commission from the contributory pension scheme.

The bill which is titled, “A Bill for an Act to Amend the Pension Reform Act, 2014 to Exclude/Exempt the National Assembly Service from the Contributory Pension Scheme and establish the National Assembly Service Pension Board; and for Related Matters (HB. 2025), was slated for third reading.

When the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, read the bill as listed in the Order Paper, the deputy chairman of the House Committee on Pensions, Bamidele Salam, while raising a Point of Order under personal explanation, expressed concern over the rapid manner the bill was passed for third reading.

He said due legislative processes were not followed as the committee was in dark about what transpired before the bill was passed for the third reading. 

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Speaking in the same vein, a member of the committee on pensions, Benjamin Bem Mzondu, said the bill would “open floodgates” of requests for exit by other agencies, saying, the development could lead to a total crash of the scheme.

But the Deputy Speaker of the House, Ahmed Idris Wase, disagreed with their positions, insisting that due process was followed in the passage of the bill for third reading

Also, Gbajabiamila said there was a need to be circumspect on the matter.

After the heated debate, the speaker ruled that the bill be stepped down to enable the committee on pensions to interface with the chairman on rules and business to iron out grey areas before further legislative action on the bill.