40 NASS Bills Awaiting Presidential Assent, Says Zakari

President Goodluck Jonathan

The Chairman, House Committee on Information, Zakari Mohammed, yesterday, said 40 bills were awaiting President Goodluck Jonathan’s assent to become Acts of the National Assembly.

Mohammed, representing Baruten/Kaiama Federal Constituency of Kwara, said this at a forum organized by Correspondents’ Chapel of the Oyo State Council of NUJ in Ibadan.

According to him, the House would have invoked the relevant portion of the constitution to deal with the situation, but “the political mood of the country had been a sort of handicap.”

Mohammed had earlier delivered a paper, entitled: “The Nigerian Press and Democratic Governance; The Journey So Far,” at the Chapel’s programme, Guest Forum.

Mohammed said the media coverage of democracy in the last 16 years had not been impressive.

He said there were a lot of vices going on within the polity which the Nigerian press had not done enough to report.

“Not only that our media practitioners are not doing enough of whistle-blowing; the political actors run to the media for cover,” he said.

Mohammed said Nigerians should be tired of politicians and the media in the last 16 years because of their unwritten collaboration to rob the country of robust democratic gains.

“How much of corruption have the media been able to expose in the country?”

The lawmaker charged the media practitioners to place the interest of the country above any other consideration.

“To entrench democracy, we should not monetize the profession; we owe this country a lot; other countries are only better than Nigeria because of organization.

“The dullest of lawyer is treated with decorum; there must be an entry point  into the profession like the medical, law, accounting and other professions to enhance the dignity of the profession; the image of journalists should be worked upon.

“If you are shabbily treated, you will be shabbily rewarded,” he said.

He said that some of the practitioners in the National Assembly had been making efforts to ensure legislation against poor remuneration of journalists with a promise that they would not relent.