President Bola Tinubu sent the Senate a batch of institutional legislation on Tuesday, read to the chamber by Senate President Godswill Akpabio and referred to the Committee on Rules and Business. The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau Amendment Bill would reposition the bureau as an independent multimodal safety investigation authority, expanding its mandate beyond aviation to maritime and other transport occurrences, and would transfer its supervisory oversight to the Presidency.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Bill would repeal the existing NDLEA Act and the Indian Hemp Act and replace them with a consolidated framework for combating the cultivation, processing, trafficking and use of illicit drugs, with strengthened powers to investigate people suspected of involvement in drug related activity. The National School of Government Bill would repeal the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria Act and establish a new national centre for leadership development, policy delivery and executive training.
Two bills are about international law at home. One would repeal the existing Geneva Conventions Act and give effect to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocols, and the Rome Statute bill would domesticate the International Criminal Court statute, creating a framework to enforce punishment for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression and for cooperation with the court.
Separately, the Senate was notified of presidential assent to two amendment bills adding federal universities of technology in Yaba, Lagos, and Kaduna to the governing law. None of the five transmitted bills has been debated; their significance will depend on committee handling, particularly the drug agency’s expanded investigative powers and the safety bureau’s move to the Presidency. Status: proposed, at referral stage.