Senate passes Nigerian Peace Corps Bill

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 youths, 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 youths, could be achieved by strengthening existing agencies and not necessarily creating  new ones.
He said it would 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, Dr 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 Nov. 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.