The senate on Tuesday passed a bill seeking to establish the Nigeria Peace Corps.
The bill passed third reading after the chairman of senate committee on interior, Sadiq Umar, presented a report.
The bill is being sponsored by Ali Ndume, senator representing Borno North.
While presenting the report on the floor of the Senate, Umar said his committee received “hundreds of memoranda” from stakeholders who are supporting the passage of the legislation.
The senator said the bill, if passed and assented to by the President, would help tackle rising unemployment in the country.
After presenting his report, the senate went into the “committee of the whole” where they considered and passed 40 sections of the bill.
The bill will be sent to the house of representatives for concurrence before it is submitted to the president for assent.
Controversy trailed the bill in the eighth assembly chaired by Bukola Saraki, former president of the senate.
In 2017, the police said “terrorist affiliates” had infiltrated the corps to “destroy the existing peace currently being enjoyed in the country”.