The Senate passed a bill on Thursday for the extension of service for employees of the National Assembly from 60 to 65 years.
The bill was passed for concurrence by the Senate at plenary, after it was earlier declined by the same senate during its previous sitting, describing it as controversial.
The bill, titled: ”A Bill for an Act to make provision for retirement age of staff of National Assembly Service and For Other related Matters” was re-presented for concurrence by Leader of the Senate, representing Ekiti Central, Bamidele Opeyemi.
Opeyemi stated that corrections had been made on the bill with proper and more extensive inputs in the various clauses, noting that special regards had also been paid to global best practices, including the definition of who a legislative officer is, in civilized and more advanced democracies, especially the U.S. and United Kingdom.
“These countries adopted the standard we want to adopt, in terms of the need to establish and strengthen institutional memories by ensuring a certain retirement age threshold for legislative officials,” he said.
READ ALSO: Senate rejects bill extending National Assembly service years
Opeyemi said he had done a lead debate and hence urged the senate to pass the bill for concurrence.
The passed bill would extend the service years of over 200 workers who are due to retire between 2024 and 2026.
The bill seeks to increase the retirement age from 60 years to 65 years and from 35 to 40 years of service.
Credible News recalls that the Senate threw out the retirement bill on Thursday last week, after dismissing and rejecting it earlier.
Majority of senators heavily opposed the bill when it was brought out for discussion as concurrence last week by the Senate Leader, as they argued that it will stop the career progression of junior staff and halt employment of young Nigerians.
It was later stepped down with the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, describing it as controversial and requiring further consultations.
