Senator Shehu Lawan Kaka of Borno Central Senatorial District has called for a review of Nigerian legislation, claiming that nothing has been done in the last 19 years.
In a resolution he sponsored, which was argued on the floor of the upper legislative Chamber on Tuesday, the legislator stated that there was a need to examine, update, and assemble the laws in alphabetical order for convenience of reference, particularly those that are now in effect in Nigeria.
Senator Kaka reminded the assembly that it was the parliamentarians who had the authority to authorize the Attorney-General’s Office to examine Nigerian legislation, which he claimed was long overdue.
The most recent review, according to the lawmaker, was in 2004, and it was passed by the “Revised Edition (Laws of the Federation of Nigeria) Act, 2007, which repealed the Revised Edition (Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 1990).
“Worried that the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 have not been revised nineteen years later, with the implication that the various laws enacted in Nigeria from January 1st, 2003 to date remain excluded from the compilation,” he stated.
Senators spoke in favor of the resolution and unanimously agreed that the National Assembly bears the burden of conducting a review.
Godswill Obot Akpabio, Senate President, supported the requests by “directing the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, and Legal Matters to immediately interface with the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation to begin the process of revising the laws.”