Senate, Reps flex muscle as Minister, DG’s absence stall Public Hearing on ‘controversial’ NITDA Bill

There was a power play at the National Assembly on Friday between members of the Senate and the House of Representatives joint committee on Cyber Security over controversial NITDA Act 2007 repeal and re-enactment 2022.At the public hearing in Abuja, members of the Joint Committee from House of representatives raised objections to the continuation of the public hearing citing the absence of the Minister and the NITDA DG, non-availability of materials on the Bill and the fact that the event was coming at a time the National Assembly members were already on ‘holiday mood’ as reason why the public hearing should not hold.

This observation pitched the members of the Joint Committee from both houses against one another as Reps members expressed dispointment that there was no apology received either from the Minister or the DG while none of their representatives were also at the public hearing.
The House members also observed that the Room seemed not to have enough representations in terms of forming quorum from the Senate and House members of the Joint Committee.

Honorable Uzoma Njem-Abonta, (Ukwa Eat/West constituency raised an objection to proceeding further with the hearing in the midst of scanty representation of stakeholders, as well as lack of document for the bill
“Be as it may the drivers of this Bill seem to be driving on low gear. The Senate President talked about a rumour that there was an insinuation that the public hearing was being done in secret, there is nothing secret, it is public, however, the necessary ingredients for us are not there. I am speaking from the perspective of the House, we are 36 in number.
“Critically too the document required is not even here, we don’t have the documents before us. Members are not here, the Minister is not here, what needs to be done should be properly done.
“We are not on vacation but on holiday mood. We.grudgingly sat yesterday, those of us who observe 25th December, we will be meeting again on the 28th to pass the budget, I will suggest

“Like the Senate President said we are supersonic digital but we have to do a good job so that by the time we finish the world will know that we have worked

“I want to suggest that mid January we take a clear cut two days to trash it out. Now it would seem we introduce public hearing and we adjourn it until the documents are ready, all members are here, the Minister is here, the DG must be here, he is the driver of this Bill if he is not here it means he is putting us on a packing gear and his legal representative is not hear so we can ask the relevant stakeholders to come and criticise the merits and demerits, my brothers I am on a Holiday mood.

Another member Idem Unyimme said, “I looked at the table I cannot find the document just like my Colleague said and I also look round for the DG he is not in this room, and this Bill is a very sensitive Bill that will benefit the entire country so I join my colleague to suggest strongly that we defer this hearing to mid January as he said.
While reacting Senator Yakubu Oseni said, “I want to put it on record straight here that if there is any anomaly or any document that is missing that should be a fault from your side the House of Representative members
“For us in the Senate everything is intact and the necessary documents concerning the bill have been circulated through digital means online, so I believe if you are conversant with your System, you should have been able to see that, on the other hand even though the NITDA DG is here he is not the one to respond to questions.
He said the DG’s representative, the legal person was present adding that there is no where the representative of the principal is not allowed to take his place. He is well represented, I don’t see any reason why we should not go ahead with the pu lic hearing. “From our own end ,the senate we are ready for this public hearing. The public hearing is not a secret hearing and we are ready for it.
Another house member Hon Isiaka Ibrahim, cut in saying
“This is a very fundamental hearing today as far as we are concerned and for those of us on this divide. I don’t know if we are taking ownership of the bill as a house or the Senate or we should have full representation of those who are the drivers of the process, who are going to drive it. “Nobody is representing the minister here, the main driver who is to be asked questions is not here and no apologies
“This sitting should be adjourned to January when we can have enough stakeholders to consider this, I am moving it as a motion.”
His motion was seconded by

Senaror Oseni said having listened to the reasons advanced by his Colleagues he said that the Minister and the DG’s absence was communicated to him, however he said other reasons advanced by the honorable members were germaine, “it is something that we need to actually look into.
“We all know the importance of the ICT, we don’t want to leave any stone unturned so that we can have a good legal framework.

He therefore adjurned the hearing till January

Meanwhile, some clauses in the bill had raised concerns among stakeholders, which they said usurp powers of other agencies of government.

One of the controversial aspects of the bill is clause 10, which empowers NITDA to fix permit fees and charges, and collect fees or penalties as may be necessary for the exercise of its functions.

The bill also established National Information Technology Development Fund, which shall be funded by a levy of one per cent of the profit before tax of companies and enterprises with annual turnover of N100 million and above.

It listed the affected companies to pay levies to include mobile and fixed telecommunications companies; information technology companies, gaming companies, and e-commerce companies; foreign digital platforms targeting the Nigerian market; banks, financial institutions, and fintech companies, insurance companies among others.

Described as important to the Nigerian economy but also controversial on the basis that it arrogates the powers of existing government agencies to NITDA as an agency, the Bill seeks to make NITDA a mega regulator of regulators in the country, going by the provisions in the Bill and this has been a subject of controversies among stakeholders.

The Bill, which had earlier been considered by the House of Representatives consecutively passed the first and second readings on the floor of The Senate on December 12 and 13 respectively, following which the public hearing was convened on Friday to take memoranda and inputs from stakeholders including Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), civil society organisations (CSOs) business community and members of the public.

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