By Jennifer Y Omiloli
The federal Government does not have comprehensive records on the treaties and protocols it signs into.
The Chairman of the House committee on treaties and protocols, Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai disclosed this on Monday.
He lamented that as at today; “the nation does not have a comprehensive and up to date record of published treaties to which it is a signatory, pointing that the federal government has ratified only 11 out of the 400 treaties and protocols it has entered into with other nations and multilateral organizations.
“There are about 400 Treaties Nigeria has signed and ratified but it’s about 11 that have been domesticated. And today, we have treaties that have financial implication in line with the law but not yet domesticated”, he disclosed.
According to the chairman, the National Assembly would not be able to fund these counterparts funding because it has not been domesticated and have no force of law in Nigeria.
“It is only when it is domesticated that it is enforceable and has a force of law in Nigeria and you can be able to apply in terms of funding in those key areas.
“There are so many Treaties we are going to review in the coming days. Look at the Aviation agreement we are talking about with China, the recent agreement on transportation ministry in terms of roads and others. Those have not been domesticated and yet want counterpart funding, does it make sense,” he revealed .
