Bill on Slaughtering, Breeding, Ranching of Donkey Divides Senators

The Senate was yesterday sharply divided over the debate on a bill to regulate the slaughtering, breeding and ranching of donkey in the country.

The bill for an Act to regulate the slaughter of donkey and establish the breeding and ranching of the animal through the export certification value chain to mitigate the extinction of donkey and for related matter, which sparked the debate, was sponsored by the Senate Leader,

Abdullahi Yahaya.

Raising point of order 43 of the Senate Rules before the Senate Leader could lead debate on the bill, Senate Minority Leader, Eyinnaya Abaribe, drew the attention of his colleagues to some provision in the constitution on why the Senate should not go ahead with debate on the bill.

Insisting that the bill is a violation of some provisions in the constitution, Abaribe said: “I will expect that as a parliament, we should look at the constitution before certain things are put up here.”

Making reference to Section 4 second schedule of the 1999 Constitution, Abaribe noted that there are 68 items in the Exclusive

Legislative List.

He said further action on the bill would invariably make the Senate going against the laws of the land by dabbling into issues that are on the residual list of the constitution meant for legislative actions of state House of Assemblies and local government councils.

According to him “Section 4(4a) of the constitution says: ‘The National Assembly shall legislate on: any matter in the Concurrent Legislative List set out in the first column of Part II of the second schedule to this constitution to the extent prescribed in the second column opposite thereto.

“Part 17-20 of the second schedule 17 states: ‘The National Assembly may make laws for the Federation or any part thereof with respect to (a) the health, safety and welfare of persons employed to work in factories, offices or other premises or in inter-state transportation and commerce, including the training, supervision and qualification of such persons; (b) the regulation of ownership and control of business enterprises throughout the federation for the purpose of promoting, encouraging or facilitating such ownership and control by citizens of Nigeria; (c) the establishment of research centres for agricultural studies; and (d) the establishment of institutions and bodies for the promotion or financing of industrial, commercial or agricultural projects.