•No bill pending before President, says Joy Emordi
•Ekweremadu, Zakari: We are frustrated
It emerged at the weekend that a total of 20 bills passed by
the National Assembly and transmitted to President Goodluck Jonathan in the
last two years were un-assented.
THISDAY investigations also revealed that 10 other bills
were assented to by the President within the period.
The legislature has repeatedly accused the President of
refusing to sign some important bills and ignoring resolutions duly passed by
the National Assembly.
The unsigned legislations, THISDAY discovered, included
eight executive bills and 12 private member bills.
But virtually all the 20 bills have lapsed now as they were
passed and forwarded to the President between November 2010 and June 2011 by
the Sixth National Assembly.
Contacted on the development, the Special Adviser to the
President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Joy Emodi, said no bill is
pending before President Jonathan at present. Emordi said most of the bills
being referred to, that the President had refused to sign, were bills passed by
the Sixth Assembly from November 2010 to April 2011.
But both the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and
Chairman House Committee on Media and Public Affairs Zakari Mohammed expressed
frustrations over a situation where bills would be passed by the lawmakers and
not signed by the President.
Section 58 (4-5) provides that “Where a bill is presented to
the President for assent, he shall within thirty days thereof signify that he
assents or that he withholds assent;” and “Where the President withholds his
assent and the bill is again passed by each House by two-thirds majority, the
bill shall become law and the assent of the President shall not be required”.
But under the law also, an unsigned bill elapses at the end
of the lifespan of the assembly.
Among the executive bills not signed and elapsed is the one
on Remuneration of former Presidents and Heads of State and Government, Prime
Ministers, Heads of Legislative Houses, Chief Justice of Nigeria.
The bill was passed and sent to President Jonathan on
November 11, 2010 and has not been signed till date.
Similarly, the National Food Reserve Agency Bill 2010 and
Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (Establishment) Bill, both of which
were sent to the Presidency on November 25, 2010 were not signed.
Another executive bill tagged the Nigerian Council of Food
Science and Technology. Bill, which was transmitted to the President on June 2,
2011, was not signed and has also lapsed.
The Harmonised Age of Academic Staff of Tertiary
Institutions Bill 2011 was also transmitted to President Jonathan same day as
the former.
Some of the private member bills, which also suffered the
same fate, included the National Health Bill and National Tobacco Control Bill
2011.
Also, the Discrimination Against Persons Living with
HIV/AIDS (Prohibition) Bill 2011 was not signed into law.
The bills not signed also included the National Climate
Change Commission Bill 2010 and the State of the Nation Address Bill 2010.
Investigations revealed that the ten bills signed into law
by the President since he assumed office after the death of President Umaru
Musa Yar’Adua on May 6, 2010 included five executive and five private member
bills.
Among the bills so far signed into law are the Debt
Management Bureau (Establishment) Bill 2011, Tertiary Education Trust Fund
(Establishment) Bill 2011, Personal Income Tax (Amendment) Bill and Retirement
Age of Staff of Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Harmonisation Bill 2012.
Emordi: Unsigned Bills from Sixth Assembly
Emordi told THISDAY that “All the unsigned bills in
questions are from the Sixth Assembly. A bill for assent has a legislative life
span of 30 days. If a bill is not assented within the legislative life span, it
would elapse and this is the problem with most of the bills being referred to.
They are bills from the Sixth Assembly and therefore, their life span for
assenting into law by the President has elapsed.
“These bills, apart from being the bills from the Sixth
Assembly, are bills referred as bills from the late President Umaru Musa
Yar’Adua’s era”.
Emordi explained that the clarification needed to be made
because of what she called the misinformation that the President had refused to
sign bills from the National Assembly.
“So far in the Seventh Assembly, there is no bill awaiting
the assent of the President. The only bills so far from the Seventh Assembly
passed by the National Assembly are the Appropriation Bills, which have been
signed into law by the President”.
She said the President is keen to sign any bill from the
National Assembly because, in the first place, “this is one of his primary
duties of ensuring good governance. He is alive to his duties as the
President”.
THISDAY learnt the President did not assent to most of the
bills because of its financial implications and the fact that some of the bills
spoke of creation of new agencies that would further bloat up the executive
arm.
But responding to that, Ekweremadu said: “Let me also
correct the impression given to the public that assents were withheld because
of the financial implications of setting up new government bodies as may be
required by such bills. But that is not correct.
“Most bills don’t have anything with setting up new
institutions. And when they do, we take the financial component into account as
a prerequisite for passing them, aware that government all over the world is
shrinking to reduce running cost. But then, we are the representatives of the
people and we know what our people want. As such, when it becomes compelling
and well justified, why not?”
Its Unfortunate, Says Ekweremadu
Ekweremadu, however, said it was unfortunate for a bill to
be passed by the National Assembly and for it not to be assented to in the
first place.
He said, however, that the National Assembly have started to
re-introduce some of the bills but that “the lasting solution should be to
amend the constitution to spell out what happens once the time the constitution
allows for the President to sign or refuse to sign a bill elapses as is the
case with the US Constitution I talked about earlier. It is certainly in the
interest of the nation to spell it out”.
I think two factors are primarily responsible for the
retinue of bills gathering dust for lack of presidential assent. First is the
political will to assent to bills. The second and indeed the worst culprit is
the 1999 Constitution. Article 1 Section 7 of the US Constitutions allows the
President a maximum of 10 working days to assent to a bill. Where he fails to
return it before the expiration of the 10 days, it automatically becomes US
law. If he or she vetoes or returns it, the Congress can then override his or
her veto by two-thirds majority of both chambers.
“Unfortunately in our case, whereas Section 58(4-5) provides
that “where a bill is presented to the President for assent, he shall within 30
days thereof signify that he assents or that he withholds assent”; and “Where
the President withholds his assent and the bill is again passed by each House
by two-thirds majority, the bill shall become law and the assent of the
President shall not be required”, the Constitution does not state what happens
after the 30 days have elapsed without the President assenting to or returning
the Bill to the parliament. Of course, you cannot override what the President
has not returned, that is indicating a refusal of assent. So, the waiting game
continues ad infinitum. And that is where the Constitution is defective in this
respect.
“An unsigned bill elapses at the end of the lifespan of the
assembly. The constitution is very clear about it and there is nothing else
anyone can really do about it except to re-introduce the bills as deemed as
appropriate. In fact, we have already started doing exactly that. But that also
means, as earlier explained, we will start expending energy and public funds on
the bills that is reintroduced. That’s not fair to us and the nation’s purse.
“Meanwhile, the lasting solution should be to amend the
constitution to spell out what happens once the time the constitution allows
for the President to a Bill elapses as is the case with the US Constitution I
talked about earlier. It is certainly in the interest of the nation to spell it
out.
In his reaction, Chairman, House Committee on Media and
Public Affairs decried a situation whereby lawmakers would carry out thorough
work on a bill and send it to the executive, only for the President to refuse
to give his assent.
"We have been presenting bills to the President and he
has not been signing them. We have been trying to be mature about it that is
why we have been taking our time", he said.
While agreeing that the President reserves the right to give
or withhold his assent to a bill, the lawmaker however said that when its
becomes obvious that the Preisent will not be willing to sign the bills
currently with him, the legislature would have no option than to recall them
and be compelled to override his veto.
Citing as example the Public Procurement Bill which had been
passed but had not been signed by the President, Mohammed said the bill would,
if signed into law, sanitise the public procurement process and redefine the
role of the Federal Executive Council in the award of contracts.
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