The House of Representatives has passed a resolution
that mandated its Committees on Tertiary Education and Services, and
Federal Judiciary to summon the Council of Legal Education with a view
to determining the reasons for the policy disapproving Law Graduates
from National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). The resolution was
passed on during plenary session on Thursday, May 5, 2016 on the heel of
a passionate call made to the Legal Education and the Body of Benchers
to allow Law Graduates of NOUN enrollment into the Nigerian Law Schools
by Hon. Ayodele Oladimeji .
While moving
his motion, he informed the House that the Council's policy that Law
should no longer be studied on part-time basis despite the fact that
many notable lawyers in Nigeria who studied Law on part-time or through
correspondence are exceedingly well in practice. Moreover, that
enforcement of the policy would deny Law graduates of NOUN admissions
into the Law school. The lawmaker noted that National Open University is
a Federal Open and Distance Learning Institution, the first of its kind
in West African Sub-region and also Nigeria's largest Tertiary
Institution in terms of student’s intake.
Hon.
Oladimeji further made case for NOUN stating that the institution offers
Law as one of its courses and met the requirements for accreditation of
a Law faculty.
In another development, the
House continued its sectorial debate on diversification of the economy.
It was the turn of the Hon. Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment,
Okechuckwu Enelemah to brief the Chamber on the Federal Government's
plan through the Ministry to diversify the economic circumstances of the
nation. He started by painting picture of the state of the nation's
economy having a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of greater than
USD500million. He further said that Nigeria has been an Oil dependent
economy and the fall in global Oil prize has left its effects on the
nation's economy, also noting that in the time being, foreign direct
investment is on the average of USD200billion per quarter and
agriculture accounting for small proportion of our export index.
Enelemah
said the Ministry plans to take advantage of agro- economy, solid
minerals and mines, and Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
through four systematic approach, these according to him include;
1.
Creating an enabling environment for trade and investment. On this he
stated that the Ministry has engaged various State Governments to remove
obstacles in the way of doing businesses in Nigeria.
2.
Industrial revolution plan that involves provision of soft
infrastructure and revamping the manufacturing sector; also, the
ministry has identified select sectors to promote better policies to
create jobs. He said they are Collaborating with agencies like SMEDAN to
roll out programs that are implementable using micro- financing and
reduced interest rates to encourage local investors especially those
operating the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
3.
Proactively engaging in long term foreign investments. On this
approach the Minister informed that there has been a lot of
inter-Ministerial efforts to put the necessary apparatus such as Power,
Security, and other infrastructures in place including partnering with
foreign and local investors to achieve a win-win economic goal.
4.
Legislative intervention. He appealed to the members of the National
Assembly to fast track passage of the 'Independent Warehouse Regulatory
Agency Bill, said it will help SMEs thrive. He mentioned submitting to
the legislature Bills on some areas that would require speedy
legislations.
To wrap up the session, the
Speaker, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara tasked the Minister on bankable policy
in specific terms that would uplift the SMEs, noting that "the joy of
democracy is seeing the government depend on the people; where the
people depend on the government, they make slave of them", he
admonished.
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