Senate passes Peace Corps Bill
By The Evangelist Newspaper
The passage of the Bill followed the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee Interior chaired by Senator Kashim Shettima.
The bill was passed by the 8th Senate in late 2017 but President Muhammadu Buhari declined assent to the legislation in February 2018, citing security concerns as one of the reasons for his decision.
The legislation, if passed, according to him, would give statutory backing to the existing Peace Corps of Nigeria, which currently has over 187,000 members, comprising regular staff and volunteers.
The Borno South Senator also said all the issues raised by President Buhari for withholding assent to the bill in the eighth Senate had been addressed in the new bill.
In his reaction, the National Commandant of the Peace Corps of Nigeria, Dickson Akoh, lauded the development.
He insisted that national security requires all hands on deck to be achieved.
He said the Corps will continue its advocacy to ensure that the Bill receive the concurrence of the House of Representatives and eventually assented to when transmitted to the President by the National Assembly.
