Senate, Reps clash over sports varsity bill

The Senate and the House of Representatives seem to be in a state of confusion over the right piece of legislation to be given final passage for the establishment of a Federal University of Sports.

While the Senate through its Chairman on Sports and Youths Development , Senator Obinna Ogba (PDP Ebonyi Central),  sponsored a bill to that effect, considered and passed for third reading on December 7, 2021 , the House came up with a different version of the bill and sought the concurrence of the Senate.

The bill was passed for the second time on May 19, 2021 and passed for third  reading on December 7, 2021.

Things went haywire when the bill came up to be considered for concurrence by Senate during a plenary on Tuesday.

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Ogba who earlier in the 8th National Assembly, sponsored and saw to the passage of the bill before repeating same in the 9th Senate, drew the attention of the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to the bill already passed for third reading in the Senate.

The Senate, in the Ogba sponsored bill , resolved  to citing of the University in Nkalagu, Ebonyi State but surprisingly, the location came back as  Afuze in  Edo State as proposed in  the House of Representatives  version .

Ogba said,  “Mr President, out of the six bills forwarded to us from the House of Representatives for concurrence, the one listed as number four, seeking for establishment of Federal University of Sports, Afuze in Edo State, runs contrary to the earlier one passed in the Senate.

“This bill as sponsored by me, had been given the required legislative consideration by the Senate with second  reading in May 2021 and third reading in December 2021.”

The Ebonyi senator added, “In the version considered and passed by the Senate, Nkalagu in Ebonyi State is proposed as location for the university and not Afuze, proposed by the House version .

“The House is supposed to concur to what the Senate had earlier passed and not the other way round with this request which should be stepped down.”

Consequently, the Senate President on the strength of Senator Ogba’s submission stepped down the bill from further consideration until required harmonisation is carried out between the Senate and  the House of Representatives .