FRESH ANXIETIES OVER MARITIME BILLS

•    Senate May Not Pass Any
•    House Passes All , Except Port And Harbour Bill     
As the countdown to the exit date of the present legislature draws near, there are fresh anxieties over the fate of the four maritime sector bills that are currently at various stages of completion at the National Assembly.

•    Senate May Not Pass Any
•    House Passes All , Except Port And Harbour Bill     
As the countdown to the exit date of the present legislature draws near, there are fresh anxieties over the fate of the four maritime sector bills that are currently at various stages of completion at the National Assembly.
Sources at both chambers told our correspondent last week that many members of the maritime transport committees have either lost their seats or are still battling to safe it owing to litigations and intrigues within their parties and their constituencies.
At the moment, the headship of the marine transport committees at both the House of Representatives and the Senate is unsteady. The chairman of the committee at the Senate, Senator Gbemi Saraki is certainly not coming back to the Senate as she is currently contesting for the Governorship of her state; Kwara; albeit on the platform of another party other than the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while her counterpart in the lower chamber, Honourable Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is still unsure of his come- back bid owing to intrigues in his party in Enugu state.
As you can see, majority of the members may not even have the time to debate; they will be more concerned with either winning the battle to retain their seats or to ensure that they come back any how.
 The National Assembly currently has four maritime sector bills before it. They are: Port and Harbour bill, Maritime Zone Bill, Chartered Institute of Shipping of Nigeria Bill and the Maritime Security Agency Bill.
 Out of the four, the House of representatives has already passed   the Maritime Security Agency Bill, the Chartered Institute of Shipping of Nigeria Band the Maritime Zone Bill. It is only the highly sensitive Port and Harbour Bill that is outstanding.
But at the Senate, none of these Bills have been passed; a development that is likely to seriously affect the fortunes of the Bills; including the ones that the lower chamber has passed.
Even though all efforts to speak with Senator Gbemi Saraki were unsuccessful, her counterpart at the lower chamber, Honourable  Ugwuanyi allayed any fear that the Bill may not be passed before the expiration of the term of the current legislators. He however said he could not say the same thing about the Senate.
The Senate has not passed any of the four Bills. In fact, none of them has gone beyond the Second Reading.
He disclosed that bill would probably have been passed by the National Assembly were it not for the disagreement over certain clauses, especially as they relate to funding for the agency. He also blamed the party primary elections for the delay.
“We will pull it through, but I can’t say the same about Senate”, he assured, even as he disclosed that  “what is holding the passage is the contentious issue of revenue, members are insisting that all revenue should go into the consolidated account, you will agree with me that if we allow that, NPA will die”.
He assured that members are however   beginning to see reasons and disclosed that the various meetings that have been held between NPA and the lawmakers have helped.