Not less than 20 Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, professional organizations, government establishments and the private sector spoke in favour of the Bill for the establishment of the Nigerian Content in Programes, Contract, Engineering, Science, Technology and Innovation, NOPCESITI, yesterday at the Senate Public Hearing which featured two Bills for reenactment and establishment.
The Bills presented by the Senate Committee on Science and Technology are the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission Act Cap N.91 LFN 2004 Repeal and Reenactment, and the Nigerian Content in Programes, Contract, Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation, NOPCESITI Establishment No. SB. 2085 of 2023.
The two Bills which were sponsored by a Senator from Abia state and Senator Musa Mohammed Sani of Niger state were received overwhelming support for it’s passage despite some reservations.
In particular, the second Bill which received the least objections came on the heel of the presentation made by the sponsor and presented by the Chairman of the Committee, Distinguished Senator Uche Lilian Ekwunife.
In a presentation by Engr. Emeka Ezeh, former Director General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, and the current Director General of the Bureau who were both represented, they expressed reservations on the passage of the Bill claiming there are several sections of the Bill that are in conflict with the extant law establishing the Bureau, especially in the areas of administrative review and functions.
However another presentation by Mohammed Bougei Attah, the National Coordinator of Procurement Observation and Advocacy Initiative, a select group of non-state actors trained under the Federal Government of Nigeria and World Bank Assisted Economic Reforms and Governance Project, ERGP 2021, supported the passage of the Bill in totality.
Mr. Attah who represented ten (10) other civil society organizations, CSOs from across the country, said that the Bill is most needed at this critical time in Nigeria when the country is suffering from image problem globally due to corruption issues, associated with public procurement. He claimed that procurement alone accounts for over 70% of total corruption cases in the public sector, as such this Bill which is primarily targeted at local content implementation monitoring will help greatly in reducing the incidence of corruptions across all sectors of the Nigeria economy, since the Bill seek to address of professionalism, private sector concerns and public sector monitoring.
In another presentation by NASENI…., one of the agencies under the Science and Technology Ministry, it seek for amendments to some sections, particularly the established of incubator Centres in all the six geopolitical areas of Nigeria. Their argument was based on the fact the incubator Centres are already in existence and functional. The recommendation therefore is to enhance their operations through administrative processes.
Other stakeholders that made presentations with support but requests for amendments to some sections of the Bill include the Nigeria Society, NSE, the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Chain Management of Nigeria, CIPSMN.
The President of COREN who was represented at the Hearing specifically drew the attention of the Committee on the need to amend Section 2 of the Bill, that deals the Council membership to include COREN.
Similarly, both the Presidents of NSE and CIPSMN in their separate presentations asked that the Bill be passed with considerations to some of the sections that previous speakers have raised concerns.
Another presentation from a CSO, NGO Network was made by Chief Casmiar Obialom, its Secretary General who also supported the passage of the Bill with a recommendation that the non-state actors be considered in the membership of the Council of the NOPCESITI.
Senator Uche Ekwenife while closing the sessions thanked all the participant, particularly the sponsors and presenters of Memorandum to the Public Hearing. She observed that the huge number of participants at the Hearing is indicative of the interest and commitment to see the Bills meet the standard and quality desired of public issues. She remarked further that the two Bills are not new. While the Nigeria Atomic Energy Bill was enacted over 30 years ago, the NOPCESITI Bill is an extension of the Presidential Executive Order 5 that has been in existence since 2021 and in operations. So their duty as a Committee is largely to seek for public opinions on how to remove grey areas for better implementations.
Further Senator Ekwunife said no Bill is completely free from conflicts from their experiences over the years, and that most arguments are usually to protect the interest of few individual offices but miss the main point as majority of the officers do not take cognisance of understanding the content of their Bills in good standing.
