The bill seeking to establish a National Ethnic and Reconciliation Commission, NERC, sponsored by Senator Anthony Ani, was on Thursday rejected by the Senate during plenary.
The proposed Bill sponsored by Senator Ani who represents Ebonyi South Senatorial District was aimed to prevent, manage and resolve ethnic conflicts, promote national cohesion and foster peace-building, among other objectives, had previously passed first reading at an earlier plenary.
However, during the second reading on Thursday, several senators identified what they described as anomalies in the bill and declared that such a law was unnecessary.
Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe (APGA, Abia South) was the first to oppose the bill, noting that its acronym, NERC, is already used by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.
“The Senate cannot pass laws establishing two separate commissions with the same acronym,” Abaribe noted.
Similarly, Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo North) argued that there is no such entity as a “National Ethnic”, stressing that Nigeria is not composed of a single ethnic group.
In addition, Oshiomhole warned that passing the bill into law would impose an additional financial burden on the Federal Government at a time when it is struggling to meet some of its financial obligations.
In his remarks, the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, declared that the country did not require such legislation. He observed that some senators who had earlier supported the bill did so out of sentiment, even though they knew it was inappropriate and would serve no useful purpose.
When a voice vote was conducted on the proposal, senators overwhelmingly voted against it with a resounding “Nay”, thereby effectively ending the legislative process on the bill.