The number of bills passed by the Eighth National Assembly and rejected by President Muhammadu Buhari since assumption of office in May 2015 has risen to 37, BusinessDay findings have shown.
It was 29 before the President recently rejected eight new bills passed by the National Assembly, increasing the number of declined bills to 37.
The bills include the controversial National Housing Fund Bill, Ajaokuta Steel Company Completion Fund Bill, Nigerian Aeronautical Search and Rescue Bill, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency Bill and National Biotechnology Development Agency Bill.
Others are the National Institute of Credit Administration Bill, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria Bill as well as the Chattered Institute of Training and Development of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill.
In separate letters sent to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and read at plenary a fortnight ago, Buhari cited several grounds for rejecting the bills ranging from financial constraints, negative impact on Nigerians and the economy, duplication of responsibilities of existing agencies, violations of extant laws to lack of consultation with relevant stakeholders.
Outrage had trailed the secret approval of the controversial National Housing Fund (Establishment) Bill by the National Assembly.
The Bill, which will seeks to repeal the National Housing Fund Act, 2004, aims to provide additional sources of funding for effective financing of housing development in Nigeria.
But analysts have accused lawmakers of doing a shoddy job, even as they applauded the President for withholding assent to the National Housing Fund bill.
According to them, the various levies imposed on Nigerians will not only be ‘disruptive and punitive’ to industries and other sectors of the Nigerian economy but will also have negative impact on Nigerian workers.
BusinessDay reports that Sections 4, 5, and 6 of the Bill imposes the following levies on Nigerians: 2.5percent monthly deduction from workers’ salaries; 2.5percent of the ex-factory price before transportation cost of each manufactured or imported 50Kg bag of cement or equivalent in bulk.
Others are a minimum of 10 percent Profit Before Tax imposed on commercial banks, merchant banks, insurance companies and Pension Fund Administrators into the National Housing Fund.
The President also rejected the Ajaokuta Steel Company Completion Fund Bill, which proposed the withdrawal of $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account for the completion of the 40-year-old steel rolling mill. He noted that in the midst of competing priorities and financial constraints, Nigeria cannot afford to release such a huge fund in one fell swoop.
But in an interview with BusinessDay, an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Samson Usman said the rejection has betrayed the present administration’s commitment to diversification of the nation’s economy.
In an era where crude oil is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, the lawyer submitted that if Buhari had signed the bill into law and the project is completed, Nigeria would have moved from being a mono-product economy to a diversified one.
His words: “If Mr. President had approved the $1 billion for the completion of the Ajaokuta Steel Company, that would have been a lifeline for the completion of the project. Because as we speak, it was 98 percent completed. It was only the liquid section that remains uncompleted.
“So, it becomes very difficult for one to comprehend why Mr. President had to turn down that request, given the fact that he was even the one that stopped that project when he took over government through coup d’état from late President Shehu Shagari. So that would have been a credit to him. And it is surprising to everybody.
“As a Kogi indigene, it baffles me much and it is a disappointment to me. Because there is nothing to compare with that project. If that project starts running, nobody will remember oil in the Niger Delta”.
Other bills earlier rejected by Buhari since 2015 include: Industrial Development (Income Tax Relief) Amendment Bill, Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, Stamp Duties (Amendment) Bill, National Institute of Hospitality and Tourism (Est.) Bill, National Research and Innovation Council (Est.) Bill and National Agricultural Seeds Council Bill.
Also rejected were: Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (Amendment) Bill, Chattered Institute of Entrepreneurship (Est.) Bill, Subsidiary Legislation (Legislative Scrutiny) Bill, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (Amendment) Bill, Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences (Amendment) Bill as well as six constitution amendment bills.
Others include: National Transport Commission Bill, Federal Road Authority (Establishment) Bill, National Broadcasting Commission Amendment Bill, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) Act (Amendment) Bill and Federal Polytechnics Act (Amendment) Bill.
The President also rejected the four versions of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill passed by the Eighth National Assembly among others.
Political observers are of the view that if the President had signed the amended electoral law, it would have eliminated some of the lapses that marred the 2019 General Election including the manual transmission of results and stiffer penalties for erring election officials, politicians, political parties and media outfits.
Clement Nwankwo, Executive Director, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, shares this school-of-thought.
In an interview with BusinessDay, the lawyer also stressed the need for lawmakers to revisit the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill.
“The amendments to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill was dropped off by the President on the excuse that it was too late in the day. I think it would be important at this stage that if the National Assembly can revisit it and pass it back to the President for assent while we do the post-mortem on the elections and come up with decisions on how to go forward,” Nwankwo who doubles as the Convener of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room – a coalition of over 70 civil society organisations in Nigeria – stated.
It would be recalled that in October 2018, Saraki had set up a Technical Committee on Declined Assent to Bills when the rejected bills by the President were just 17.
In a 34-page report adopted last Wednesday, the panel chaired by David Umaru (APC, Niger) recommended that out of the 17 bills it scrutinised, 11 of them should be reconsidered and passed by the National Assembly, even as four others should be withdrawn while calling on the National Assembly to override the President’s veto on two bills.
On his part, Nuhu Yaqub, Dean, School of Post-Graduate Studies, Nile University, Abuja, attributed the President’s decision to withhold assent to the bills to the frosty relationship between the Executive and the Legislature. “From the inauguration of the Eighth National Assembly in 2015, both arms of government have been at loggerheads because Presiding Officers were elected against the ruling party’s preference. So, it is not unexpected”, he told BusinessDay in a telephone interview.
Other analysts blamed the National Assembly for doing a shoddy job.
“That the National Assembly could give itself pass mark in two out of the initial 17 rejected bills is in itself an indictment. We all saw that during the presentation of report by the Technical Committee on Declined Assent to Bills, it okayed only two for override, 11 for reconsideration and four for withdrawal. The import is that the National Assembly did not follow due diligence in 15 out of 17 bills passed”, a source in the National Assembly, who did not want his name mentioned, said.
In an interview with BusinessDay, Austine Aigbe of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), said if the President had signed the amended electoral law, most of the flaws observed in the 2019 General Election would have been eliminated.
He therefore called on the National Assembly to summon the courage to override the President’s veto rather than lament on the matter.
Although Section 58 (5) of the 1999 Constitution provides that two-third of both legislative chambers of the National Assembly (73 senators and 240 members of House of Representatives) are required to override the President’s veto, political commentators say this would be a tall order considering the fact that not only are both chambers polarised along party lines but lawmakers against the President’s action cannot garner the required two-thirds to upturn his veto.
However, Aigbe believes it is better to attempt and fail than to lament and do nothing.
His words: “The National Assembly ought to have attempted to override the President’s veto. If they had done so before and it went through, the President would have been conscious of the way he was not signing bills.
“Even if they may not have the numbers, the question is they should just try it. What kills business is not taking risks. The National Assembly needs to take risks by trying to veto a bill that the President rejects”.
He added: “The amended Electoral Act would have been an opportunity to strengthen our electoral system.
“There are many other crucial bills like constitution amendment bill that would have improved our budgetary process and the PIGB that would have improved our petroleum sector. And just now, we have been ranked very high in terms of misery index. IMF just ranked us the second lowest in terms of the way we use our sovereign wealth fund. Bills that would have strengthened our economic architecture have been thrown out based on political affiliation. And I think it is not helping us as a country”.
Also speaking with our correspondent, constitutional lawyer, Ralph Agama, blamed the National Assembly for not invoking its powers as enshrined in Section 58 (5) of the 1999 Constitution, which empowers the Legislature to override the President’s veto.
“The Constitution is clear. Where the National Assembly passes a bill, and it is presented before the President for his assent and he withholds assent, the constitution still gives the National Assembly the room to go ahead and veto. In all of this, has the National Assembly vetoed the President’s assent? The answer is no. The question Nigerians should ask is: why is it that whenever the President refuses to assent to a bill, he will give reason but the National Assembly has never come out to tell us why they are not able to override the President’s veto?
“So, it is either one lapse or the other on the part of the National Assembly. The Constitution has empowered both the Executive and the Legislature on what to do when those instances occur.
“Where there is a will, there is always a way. Let’s see the willingness of the leadership of the National Assembly to say what we have done is the best for Nigeria. And say if the President refuses assent, we will veto it.
“So, if the National Assembly feels this is the best for Nigeria in terms of the law they have made, they should go ahead and override the President’s veto. Let steps be taken whether it is politically motivated that they were not able to veto it. So for me, it is the leadership of the National Assembly, most often, that has something to hide and they are not bringing it up for Nigerians,” he stated.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
