Buhari rejects yet another set of five bills

The 8th National Assembly may go down in the history of the country as the one with the highest number of rejected bills passed by it, as President Muhammadu Buhari has again declined assent to five different bills transmitted to him by the National Assembly.

The rejected bills, sent to President Buhari for assent late last year, are Maritime Security Operations Coordinating Board (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (Amendment) Bill 2018 and the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Bill 2018.

Others are Federal Polytechnic (Amendment) Bill 2018 and The Energy Commission (Amendment) Bill.

The decision of the president to withhold assent to the bills were made known in a letter the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, read at the resumption of plenary on Wednesday.

The president gave reasons for withholding his assent to bills in the letter read by Saraki.

Read also: Buhari to transmit new minimum wage bill to National Assembly January 23

According to President Buhari, the proposed amendments to the Maritime Security Operations Coordinating Board (Amendment) Bill, 2019, Buhari said will create distortions and duplications with the functions and operations of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency.”

Buhari instead urged the Senate to focus on passing the suppression of piracy and other maritime offences bill currently before it in order to achieve a more comprehensive review of the operations of the maritime sector.

On the amendments to the RMFAC Bills, President Buhari said he rejected it because it will interfere with and obstruct the smooth administration of revenue generating agencies of the Federal Government.

He also stated that the bill will confer the powers of oversight of the revenue agencies currently vested in the President and Minister of Finance to the RMFAC, adding that it negates the existing provisions of Section 51 of the Federal Inland Revenue Service.

The President, which stating the reason for rejecting the Bankruptcy and Insolvency bill, referred to some drafting errors and the fact that a number of the provisions needed to be properly domesticated and aligned with the Nigerian law

For the Federal Polytechnic (Amendment) bill, President Buhari rejected the bill because Section 16 (1)(2) of the legislation subjects the removal of the Governing Council members and rectors of polytechnic to the approval of the Federal Executive Council, among others.

For the Energy Commission (Amendment) bill, the president revealed that he declined to assent the bill because of the proposal in Section 8 that the agency will be entitled to 5 per cent from the Federation Account. This, he said is unconstitutional.

The President also insisted that the bill infringes on the Rural Electrification Agency’s powers to carry out its mandate with particular reference to the promotion and development of unserved and under-served rural communities across Nigeria.

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