NASS to probe 19 bills rejected by Buhari – Lawan

Senate President Ahmad Lawan announced that the Senate will investigate the 19 constitutional alteration bills rejected by President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). Lawan made the statement during a plenary session on Tuesday. In January, the National Assembly transmitted 35 constitutional alteration bills to the President for assent. Buhari signed 16 of those bills last Friday, leaving 19 rejected.

In his briefing, Lawan noted that the most notable of the assented bills was the fifth alteration bill number 6, which provides for the financial independence of State Houses of Assembly and the judiciary. He said, “We sent 35 Constitution amendment bills. Sixteen of them were approved while 19 were rejected. We will find out why those bills were rejected because we put a lot of resources into the process.” The Senate President added that the Senate would continue to engage the executive, review the rejected bills and address any issues that can be resolved quickly. If the matters are more complex, they may be deferred to the 10th Assembly.

The first of the rejected bills was the fifth alteration bill number 24, which sought to amend the Second Schedule of the 1999 Constitution to empower the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly to summon the President and state governors for questioning. Another rejected proposal, alteration bill number 7, aimed to compel persons to obey legislative summons. Additional bills turned down included:

– Fifth alteration bill number 29, proposing a State of the Nation and State of the State address by the President and governors;
– Fifth alteration bill number 22, specifying the period within which the President or a state governor must present the Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly or House of Assembly;
– Fifth alteration bill number 30, seeking to include former heads of the National Assembly in the Council of State;
– Fifth alteration bill number 14, moving fingerprints, identification and criminal records from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List;
– Fifth alteration bill number 18, empowering the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission to enforce compliance with remittances and streamline the revenue allocation formula;
– Fifth alteration bill number 66, reflecting the establishment and core functions of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.

The Senate will now examine why these 19 bills were rejected and determine the appropriate next steps.