On Tuesday, the Nigerian Senate bemoaned President Muhammadu Buhari’s failure to sign the constitution amendment proposals, particularly the one that aims to grant parliamentarians the authority to call the president and governors.
When presiding over the plenary, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, stated that the rejected legislation was one of the 18 constitutional amendment bills forwarded to Buhari for signature by the National Assembly.
On Friday of last week, President Buhari assented to 16 of the 35 constitutional amendment measures brought to him for assent by the National Assembly.
According to him, the most noteworthy of the sixteen approved legislation was the fifth amendment bill number six, which provides for the financial independence of State Houses of Assembly and the Judiciary.
Others, he added, had to do with transferring railway services, correctional centres, and electricity generation and distribution from the exclusive list to the concurrent list.
Nonetheless, he stated that 19 bills that were not approved by the president would still be forcefully pursued by both chambers of the National Assembly.
The first of these 19 laws that Buhari did not sign was the fifth amendment bill number 24, which aimed to amend the Second Schedule of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The bill proposes to authorise the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly to summon the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Governors of States to answer questions about matters over which the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly have authority.
The president also vetoed amendment bill number 7, which proposed an Act to Modify the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to compel persons to follow or comply with Legislative Summonses.
The bill number 29 proposed an Act to Amend the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to provide for a State of the Nation and State of the State Address by the President and Governor.
The proposed Act to Modify the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to Define the Period Within Which the President or Governor of State Must Present the Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly or House of Representatives was numbered 22.
The intent of bill number 30 was to amend the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to include former National Assembly leaders on the Council of State.
Additionally, Bill No. 14 proposed an Act to Amend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to remove Fingerprints, Identity, and Criminal Records off the Exclusive Legislative List and place them on the Concurrent Legislative List.
Similarly, Bill 18 proposed an Act to Amend the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 in Order to Empower the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission to Enforce Compliance with Remittance of Accruals into and Disbursement of Revenue from the Federation Account and to Streamline the Procedure for Reviewing the Revenue Allocation Formula.
