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"content": "Hon. Members, as you are aware, at the rise of the Sitting today, the House is scheduled to proceed on a long recess as per the Calendar of the House in what marks the conclusion of the Third Session of the National Assembly in the 12th Parliament. I, sincerely, wish to commend the House for the diligence and commitment to the business of the House in plenary throughout the Session. During the Session, a lot of key business was transacted and numerous decisions made. This information will be made available in the annual report of business of the Assembly which is under preparation. Hon. Members, as the Session winds up and the House proceeds on recess, I wish to remind Members of the fate of the various businesses that were before the House and the committees. Firstly, you are aware that Standing Order 141(2) provides that a Bill that has been published, read a First Time or in respect of which the Second Reading has not been concluded at the end of a Session in which it was published shall not lapse. However, a Bill not concluded at the end of two consecutive Sessions shall lapse at the end of the second Session. Secondly, with regard to Petitions, as you are also aware, Article 37 of the Constitution provides that every person has “the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket and to present petitions to public authorities”. Additionally, Article 119 provides that “every person has a right to petition Parliament to consider any matter within its authority, including enacting, amending or repealing any legislation”. The Standing Order 227(2) reads, and I quote: “Whenever a Petition is committed to a Departmental Committee, the Committee shall, in not more than sixty calendar days from the time of reading the prayer, respond to the petitioner by way of a report addressed to the petitioner or petitioners and laid on the Table of the House and no debate on or in relation to the report shall be allowed but the Speaker may, in exceptional circumstances, allow comments or observations in relation to the Petitions for not more than 20 minutes”. Hon. Members, for good reasons, the National Assembly through the Standing Orders imposes a sixty-day limit within which a petition shall be responded to by way of a report tendered to the petitioner or petitioners and a copy laid on the Table of the House. The letter and spirit of this Standing Order is not to encumber petitioners who painstakingly take their time and resources to approach their Parliament for recourse. I am aware that, a total of 70 petitions were received with 23 already concluded, 46 are pending before the various Committees, while one lapsed. Many other requests are currently being processed. Hon. Members, conscious that the National Assembly should not be seen to punish the petitioners by requiring them to file their petitions afresh upon resumption of business in the Fourth Session as they have no control of our Parliamentary Calendar, I direct that consideration of all pending petitions will resume at the stage at which they are as at today so that the sixty-day rule, which rule is meant merely for our internal order, only begins to apply again upon the resumption of business in the next Session."
}