The leadership of the House of Representatives has warned members of the House against engaging in what it called “legislative plagiarism”.
Speaker Yakubu Dogara gave the warning at plenary today, saying it is a serious issue that would not be condoned by the House.
The warning was sequel to a point of order raised by the Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, who had complained that some members were fond of infringing on the intellectual property rights of other members of the House regarding authorship of Bills and Motions.
As stated by Gbajabiamila, the trend has the potential of impacting negatively on the legislative vibrancy of the members and the House at large.
“There is a trend in this Assembly which is legislative plagiarism whereby names of original authors of Bills and Motions were substituted and replaced with their own.
“This is so bad that some went up to 5th Assembly to search for past motions and Bills and that is why you see a legislator within four months having 40 Bills.
“This is not done anywhere in the world because there is no way quality legislation can be enhanced through that practice.
“Legislative work has a lot to do with research and if you are researching into Bills, it is impossible to come up with 40 Bills within four months”.
He also pointed out that unsuspecting Nigerians that follow events in the House would question the essence of representation of some of the lawmakers, especially those from the same constituency.
“This high rate of Bill becomes a challenge for other members from the same constituency because they will be asked what they are doing when the other one was presenting so many Bills.
“This is a new era of change, and we must be seen to have imbibed the change. Even if you must pick other people’s motions, at least acknowledge the original author of the Bill.
“It is my opinion that we come up with original Bill and stop infringing on the intellectual property of others. This trend must stop,” Gbajabiamila stated.
Dogara sustained the point of order, saying the issue of plagiarism was a serious one urging the Committee on Rules and Business to look into the matter.