LAST Thursday, the Senate passed the Anti-Terrorism bill into law, thus providing the legal impetus and further capacity to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other security agencies to enhance the fight against terrorism, financial crimes and other unwholesome acts, which the nation’s laws did not fully capture hitherto.

Since he assumed office in May last year, President Goodluck Jonathan has left no one in doubt of his desire to have a new set of laws in place to ensure that the fight against terrorism and modern day criminal tendencies are fully captured.

The president appeared impatient with the delay the bill had suffered in the National Assembly and he had to even appeal to the lawmakers for quick passage of the bill the same day it was eventually passed by the Senate.

Any watcher of the Nigerian political terrain should not find the pressure on the president strange.  On October 1, 2010, when Nigerians were celebrating the 50th independence anniversary, some bombers killed the joy by planting bombs at the vicinity of the Eagle Square, killing 14 persons and injuring 20 others.

Some security operatives, who were attached to the 50th anniversary celebration, were caught in the tragedy.

Afterwards, there has been a flurry of other bomb blasts in Abuja, Jos and other parts of the country. But before the spate of bomb blasts and bomb scares took over the stage, the entire South-East of Nigeria had been shut down through the activities of kidnappers. President Jonathan had to inject the military into the zone to calm things down.  Without clear laws tackling perpetrators of such crimes, the nation was heading for a near disaster.

Last Thursday, the Senate heeded the President’s call when it passed the bill into law.

The bill in Section 2(C) provides that terrorism is viewed an  'act’ which involves anyone who causes “an attack upon a person's life which may cause serious bodily harm or death; kidnapping of a person; destruction to a government or public facility, transport system, an infrastructural facility including an information system, a fixed platform located on the continental shelf, public place or private property likely to endanger human life or result in major economic loss. The seizure (hijack) of an aircraft, ship or other means of public or goods transport and the use of such means of transportation for any of the purposes…"

Chairman of Senate Committee on National Security and Intelligence, Senator Nuhu Aliyu, who presented the bill for its Third Reading and final passage said that the "fight against terrorism has today become a global fight and Nigeria as a member of the international community seeks to play an important role."

He submitted that the event of  9/11 terrorists attack on United States of America had opened the eyes of every security conscious country to the danger lurking around.

He said that the search for a bill to tackle terrorism has been on in the Senate since 2005 when an attempt to pass an anti-terrorism bill failed on Senate floor.

He said, "For those of us who were here during the fifth senate, you will recall that a bill to combat terrorist acts was read on this chamber in 2005 but it could not scale the second reading because it was the thinking of the Senate then, that the objective conditions for having an anti-terrorist Act were not extant in Nigeria.”

Senator Aliyu said that “the bill has now provided a legal framework for the prevention, prohibition and combating of acts of terrorism in Nigeria” as well as prescribing penalties for violating any of its provisions.

He told his colleagues that there was the need to provide a potent legal instrument to help in combating the growing threat of terrorism in the country.

"Many organised crimes such as oil bunkering, hostage taking and kidnappings will attract stiff penalties under the bill," he stated.

He also submitted that the bill seeks to make a person, who belongs to terrorist organizations or professes terrorism liable for an offence which would earn such a person 20 years imprisonment.

The bill however distinguishes political beliefs from beliefs of “proscribed organizations.”

Senator Aliyu did not need to labour too hard as the bill was a law whose time had come. His colleagues supported the submissions and the nation’s anti-terrorism law passed the crucial stage.

The ball is now in the court of the House of Representatives to concur with the Senate so that the bill can make it to the President’s table.