The four vetoed bills
Late last month, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo acted on a raft of bills that had earlier been passed by both chambers of the National Assembly and sent to the presidency for assent. The Acting President granted assent to seven of the bills and withheld assent from four others. In a letter to both Senate President […]
Late last month, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo acted on a raft of bills that had earlier been passed by both chambers of the National Assembly and sent to the presidency for assent. The Acting President granted assent to seven of the bills and withheld assent from four others. In a letter to both Senate President Dr Bukola Saraki and House Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Osinbajo said he acted pursuant to section 58(4) of the constitution. He declined to sign the National Lottery Amendment Bill because of a pending legal challenge to the National Assembly’s competence to legislate on the matter.
He also withhold assent to the Dangerous Drugs Amendment Bill 2016 because of “concerns regarding certain words and phrases utilised in the draft Bill that may be inconsistent with the Principal Act.” Osinbajo also said he will not sign the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund Amendment Bill 2016 because of concerns surrounding board composition and proposals to increase un-collateralised loans from N5,000 to N250, 000. The fourth Bill from which the Acting President withheld assent was the Currency Conversion Freezing Orders Amendment Bill 2016. He complained about “modalities for the communication of asset forfeiture orders.”
Since the return of the bills to the National Assembly, the public has not heard much in respect of their circumstances, except for some stir on the floor of the Senate and apparent complacence from the House of Representatives. For instance, Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi) questioned the Acting President’s power to withhold assent to a bill. He said, “The role of the executive is to carry out their fundamental objectives by signing anything that has being passed by this House.” Melaye was promptly corrected by Senator George Sekibo (Rivers), who pointed out that the President can veto a bill. Senate President Bukola Saraki then referred the matter to the of the National Assembly’s Legal Department for advice.
Resort to the Legal Department should not translate into a death knell for these pieces of legislation. The least the National Assembly can do is to fast track the amendment of the bills as indicated in the forwarding letter of the Acting President and return same to him for assent. After all, these legislations would have become law if not for the reservations of the Acting President. Alternatively the National Assembly could proceed and override the veto with a two-thirds majority vote, if it feels so strongly for the rejected bills.
The importance of these bills even as draft laws cannot be over emphasised. By their emergence at significant expense to the Nigerian public in terms of financial resources and others factors, they represent the response of the society to challenges of ordering national development. That is why adequate premium should be vested on not only them but all such outcomes of legislative enterprise, be such laws or resolutions.
It is in this respect that the National Assembly should allow the development to spur it into a more proactive disposition towards the law-making process. Like the several generations of lawmakers are aware, the country’s legal system is still steeped in archaic laws, which were enacted decades ago and often under long obsolete social circumstances that today constitute anachronistic features of the times. Indeed some laws still contain penalties and fines that are denominated in pounds and shillings, which Nigeria discarded as legal tender in 1973.
The implication of the foregoing is that the country needs to overhaul its legal system comprehensively, and in a manner that should dispense with tardiness. The response of the National Assembly to the returned bills will attest to how responsive the institution is to its statutory challenges, with respect to promptness in making and reviewing laws for the country.