The House of Representatives at the plenary yesterday passed for second reading a bill seeking to alter Part 1 of the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 to expand the scope of code of conduct for public officers to facilitate realization of food and economic security.
Leading the debate on its general principles, the sponsor Hon. Balarabe Shehu Kakale, explained that the bill sought to expand the scope of agricultural production in the country.
According to him, the constitution only allowed farming and a lot of Nigerians think by the 21st century farming is restrictive and doesn’t carry the whole view and intentions of the current policy of government in food production.
When the Speaker of the House of Representative, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, sought to know if the definition of farming in the Code of Conduct is restrictive, the lawmaker continuing said with the current global view about agricultural production and service, farming as casted 40 years ago is restrictive, as it only referred to manual labor of production of agricultural goods.
He opined that expanding it to agricultural services and food production will be more sustainable with the current realities.
“The alteration is to broaden the scope of that Code of Conduct so that Nigeria can achieve economic and health security. The bill seeks to expand the scope of agricultural service delivery in Nigeria, from just crop farming as has been envisaged in the past, to other vast components of agricultural goods and services that have continued to yield economic dividends for Nigeria,” he said.
Contributing, Hon. Lynda Ikpeazu, supported the bill for its developmental spirit, and for the good of the development of the agricultural sector.
Thereafter, the bill was voted on, approved and referred to the special committee on the review of 1999 constitution.
Thisday