Senate passes Bill seeking to Establish Nigerian Peace Corps

The Senate on Tuesday passed the Bill Establishing the Nigerian Peace Corps (NPC).

The Bill, which was sponsored by Senator Bayero Nafada (APC-Gombe), is meant to empower and provide employment for the youth, facilitate peace, volunteerism, community services and nation building.

The bill was passed in a unanimous voice vote after the Chairman, Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator David Umaru, presented report on issues surrounding adoption of the conference report on the bill.

He said the major objective of the NPC bill, which is to provide employment for the youth, could be achieved by strengthening existing agencies and not necessarily creating new ones.

He said it will prevent the Federal Government from being overburdened.

He said the committee, however observed that the powers and functions of the NPC called for concern and urged that they be subjected to further examination.

“The right vested by the Bill in clause 37 (1) (a) on members of the Corps to ‘access all records of any person or authority’ is too broad in scope and to that extent constitutes an infringement on the right to privacy guaranteed by the Constitution, under Section 37. This power is unnecessary, given that the Corps is not an investigative agency,’’ he said.

In his remarks, the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki said the journey towards establishing the NPC had been a long one.

He commended the committee for a good job and expressed optimism that when signed into law, the bill would help to address the problem of unemployment among youths.

The NPC bill was passed in the House of Representatives in June 2016, while  the Senate passed its version in November 2016.

The two chambers set up a conference committee to reconcile the areas of differences in the  bill.

The Senate at its plenary sitting on May 2, 2017,  deliberated on report of the conference committee, and referred it to the Committee on Judiciary, to investigate into some allegations against the NPC.