By Disun Amosun
Clerk to the House of Representatives, Dr. Yahaya Danzaria has explained any noticeable flaw in legislations emanating from the legislature to human errors or omissions in terms of drafting, taking into account the intricacies and thoroughness the task of legislative drafting requires.
Dr Yahata spoke in an interview with Nigeria Pilot Newspaper at the end of an Induction and Award ceremony by a professional and advocacy group the Association of Legislative Drafters and Advocacy Practitioners (ALDRAP) held in Abuja.
The Association earlier in an address by its Executive Secretary Dr. Tonye Jaja had put the blame of noticeable flaws in laws passed by the House on the reliance of the management of the House on non- professionals in the process of legislative drafting.
The ALDRAP scribe then called on both the Senate and the House of Representatives to work towards proper drafting as well as documentation of legislations passed in both chambers of the legislature.
The group also advocated for proper gazetting of laws and resolutions passed in the two chambers for proper archiving and strengthening of the role of the parliament in a democracy.
Reacting to the Association’s position on the issue, the Clerk of the House of Representatives, while admitting to the necessity of involving professional legislative drafters in the process of lawmaking noted that in their dearth, the House relies on the institutional training and experience gathered by lawyers and other categories of staff involved in legislative drafting.
As a lawyer trained in the field himself, Dr. Yahaha described the process of legislative drafting as intricate and painstaking, that needed to be approached professionally and the final draft double-checked again and again by different persons before it goes for passage and a clean copy made for transmission to the president for assent.
“Typical examples are the Petroleum Industry Act and the Amended Electoral Act that have to be re-enacted following flaws attributed to omissions on the part of drafters of the laws, some in parts and sections, attributable to human errors” Dr. Yahaha noted.
The Clerk noted that with the coming on stream of ALDA coupled with NILDS and other training Institutes designated for professional training of legislative drafters, the House of Representatives, through the active support of the Speaker Rep Femi Gbajabiamila is now ready for active collaboration in strengthening the legislative drafting cadre of the House of Representatives.
