A Rebuttal to Sen. Sarafadeen’s Media Aide’s Misinformation on Federal Medical Centre Bill, Igboora

It is no longer news that the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria had concurred to the Federal Medical Centres Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024 (HB.799) sponsored by member representing Ibarapa Central and Ibarapa North Federal Constituency of Oyo State in the 10th Assembly, Hon. (Dr.) Anthony Adebayo Adepoju.

The bill was one of the two bills slated for concurrence having been transmitted by the House of Representatives since May this year. It has been reported persistently that a similar bill was previously sponsored by Hon. (Dr.) Saubana Ajibola Muraina, a former lawmaker who represented the constituency in the 9th Assembly. The bill by the former lawmaker with the title Federal Medical Centre Igboora, Oyo State (Establishment) Bill, 2021 (HB.347), was passed by the two chambers of the National Assembly but failed to receive the presidential assent of the former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari.

There are several reasons why a bill may be rejected by the President . According to Guide to Lawmaking in the National Assembly, a journal published in 2017 by Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC),
Abuja, Nigeria, the reasons for the failure may include but not limited to lack of follow-up on a Bill by its sponsor(s), poor research data base, political factor, the lobbying capacity of a sponsor, in terms of his/her ability to mobilize support; the importance attached to the Bill by the Senate or House of Representatives; the committal of Bill to a Standing Committee or Committee of the Whole House; the promptness of attention from the Committee to which the Bill is referred to; the exigencies of organizing a public hearing on the Bill; the sponsorship of Bills with no intention of passing them; the political and cultural disposition of members on the Bill; and the effects of other events.

Aware of the development of the failure of the Medical Centre Bill sponsored by Hon. Ajibola Muraina, Hon. Adebayo Adepoju, upon assuming office, reinitiated the bill from scratch, which he continues to pursue persistently through various committee meetings, debates and resources since 2023.

For any bill to be sponsored, it has to be gazetted and appear in the journal of the National Assembly of Nigeria. Every bill has its distinctive number; any bill coming from the House of Representatives is represented with HB (House of Representatives Bill), while that of the Senate is represented with SB (Senate Bill). Both HB and SB are followed by the bill number to show their difference. However, having been published in the National Assembly journal on July 18, 2023, the Federal Medical Centre Bill with the House number (HB.799) was read for the first time on the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, November 1, 2023, which subsequently scaled the first, second, third reading and passed by the House of Representatives in May and forwarded to the upper chamber of the National Assembly of Nigeria for its concurrence. When a bill is passed by either chamber of the National Assembly. If it is the House of Representatives that passed the bill and sent it for concurrence, a senator is expected to sponsor the bill in the Senate on behalf of the sole sponsor from the House of Representatives. Similarly, if a bill is passed by the Senate, a lawmaker in the House of Representatives is expected to sponsor it on behalf of the Senate sponsor. However, in May 2022, Sen. Abdullahi Abubakar Yahaya, Senator Representing Kebbi North Senatorial District of Kebbi State in the 9th Assembly, sponsored the bill by Hon. Ajibola Muraina that failed to receive presidential assent at concurrence level, while the medical centre bill by Hon. Adebayo Adepoju that was passed yesterday by the Senate was sponsored by the House Leader, Sen. Bamidele Michael Opeyemi, representing Ekiti Central on behalf of Hon. Adebayo Adepoju, such is the tradition of the National Assembly of Nigeria in enduring its bicameral practice.

The above is to clarify that a bill is not like an abandoned project where you give credit to your predecessor. It is not as if the medical centre bill by Hon. Ajibola Muraina was in its first or second reading and Hon. Adepoju took it up. It is a matter of a bill whose lifecycle had been completed by being rejected by the presidency, and another lawmaker, in the person of Hon. Adepoju, reinitiated the bill so that the people of Ibarapa can have access to good healthcare services. The case is like a PhD student who failed to complete his academic programme and another member of the community aims to apply for his PhD, and when the latter is approaching graduation stage, everybody is calling on the student to give credit to the former. Such can only be done by the new student if he wishes, as he can never be under any obligation to do so.

To buttress the point with public information, the OrderPaper report of the first anniversary of the 10th National Assembly of Nigeria was published on September 19, 2024. OrderPaper is Nigeria’s foremost independent parliamentary monitoring organisation and policy think tank that bridges the gap between people and parliament. The report detailed the performance of all 469 lawmakers from the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In the report, Hon. Adepoju was the only lawmaker from Oyo State with two bills in concurrence among all the 17 lawmakers from the pacesetter state. These bills as of September this year were: (Federal Medical Center, Igboora and Institute of Economist), only Hon. Agboworin came close with just one bill in concurrence. In the report as well, none of the senators from Oyo State had their bill in second reading, as the progression of their proposed laws was marked as 100% awaiting second reading.

With that said, yesterday when Hon. Adepoju’s Federal Medical Centre Bill was passed by the Senate, the social media was awash with the desperate attempts by Mr. Akeem Abas, who is the Special Adviser on Media to Senator Sharadeen Alli representing Oyo South Senatorial District. The Media Aide wasted no time to attribute the credit of the bill to his master. The man-must-trend advertorial that first appeared on InsideOyo and other various blogs is not only misleading but also portrayed a sheer act of blatant criminality, which does not speak well of a public officeholder. It also exposed Mr. Abas as an individual who seems not to understand the working system of the National Assembly to have committed such a huge gaffe in his desperation to give credit to his master on a development he had not laboured for.

To familiarise Mr. Abas with the basics of the National Assembly, it is the tradition of the National Assembly of Nigeria that any bill from the House of Representatives is passed by the Senate, while any bill from the Senate is passed by the House of Representatives, simply known as Concurrence. So in Mr. Abas’ own imagination of the National Assembly, Sen. Sarafadeen Alli is sponsoring a bill, and it is being passed by the Senate and already being transmitted for presidential assent at the same time. Let us even assume that Sen. Sharafadeen Alli has a bill on Federal Medical Centre, Igboora, but won’t it be passed by the House of Representatives before such a bill is transferred for presidential assent? It would have been better, at least, if the report noted that Senator Alli bill was passed and sent for concurrence yesterday rather than saying the bill is being sent for presidential assent.

The understanding of the Special Adviser on Media to Senator Alli about the legislative process in Nigeria is highly laughable. It shows that the SA Media is bereft of the progression of the bill being sponsored by his principal that none of it is yet to be in concurrence and to think that the Federal Medical Centre Bill HB.799 passed yesterday was his principal’s bill is nothing short of an act of unprofessionalism and portrays a Media Aide without information. As Nigeria continues to reduce the rate of misinformation in the media space to the barest minimum, it appears that Mr. Akeem has further exacerbated those noble efforts, and it will be of immense help to his personality as an image maker to apologise for subjecting his principal to public embarrassment and possible ridicule. In the ageless words of Jimmy Gomez, “When fake news is repeated, it is difficult for the public to discern what is real.” In this era of misinformation, thought leadership requires a steadfast commitment to truth, trust and transparency. It is important for image makers with direction to maintain these three foundational principles as their watchwords in their efforts to serve their leaders and the public at the same time.

For the record, yesterday, the Senate passed three medical bills to amend the Federal Medical Centres Act, facilitating the establishment of new Federal Medical Centres in Igbo-Ora, Oyo State; Okigwe, Imo State; and Ovwian, Delta State. The bills were sponsored by Hon. (Dr.) Anthony Adebayo Adepoju, Hon. Miriam O. Onuoha, Rev. Francis Ejiro Waive, representing Ibarapa Central and Ibarapa North Federal Constituency, Okigwe North Federal Constituency and Ughelli North/South/Udu Federal Constituency, respectively.

This piece is not an attempt to further ridicule the distinguished Senator, but to properly inform members of the public about the controversial press statement credited to the Special Adviser Media and Publicity to Sen. Sharafadeen Alli.

Now that the bill has been passed by the two chambers, we call on all stakeholders from Ibarapa Land who are going to be direct beneficiaries of the bill that is being cleaned up for presidential assent to rally round Hon. Adebayo Adepoju in his efforts to achieve this huge project in our ancestral home, which is capable of reducing mortality rates and enhancing people’s access to quality healthcare services in our community and its environs. This is not the time to play politics over the project; it is the time for intense lobbying and relationships with those that will ensure speedy assent of the Mr. President for the bill’s actualisation.

May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Hassan Adesodi Olaoniye
Special Adviser to Hon. (Dr.) Adebayo Adepoju
(Media and Publicity)
October 11, 2024