Reps Give Buhari 30 Days To Forward All Signed Treaties To NASS

The House of Representatives has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that all treaties signed by the country, are forwarded to the National Assembly (NASS) within 30 days, for domestication.
House of Representatives It further urged him to stop all counterpart funding of all agreements and protocols WI 4th financial implication until they are domesticated by the National Assembly. The resolution followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai (PDP-Delta).
In approving the motion, the House also mandated it’s a committee on treaties, protocols and agreements to immediately commence the review of all treaties, agreements and protocols signed and ratified by Nigeria.
Leading debate on the motion, Hon Ossai observed that in Nigeria today, there is no accessible, comprehensive and up-to-date record of a published compendium of the register of Treaties to which Nigeria is a signatory.
“Aware that the United Nation’s records show that Nigeria has ratified over 400 Treaties both Bilateral and Multilateral on the different subject matter, out of which not up to 40 can be identified as having been recorded locally by the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Justice,” he stated.
According to him, “on the 21st of August 2017 the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, was reported to have identified a major challenge to the domestication of Treaties in Nigeria, the non-arrangement for early involvement of the National Assembly in the negotiation.
“Also observed that this has negatively impacted on the input in these Treaties, which adversely affects the facilitation on domestication and the full protection of the country’s International Agreements by the National Assembly”.
He lamented that some of these undomesticated Treaties could have a direct positive impact on the advancement of the fundamental rights of our citizenry and the nation’s economic growth.