Of the 17 bills President Muhammadu Buhari declined to assent, the Senate, Wednesday, resolved to override his veto on two bills out of others passed and forwarded to him.
Specifically, the Senate vowed to override President’s veto on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999(Fourth Alteration, No.28)Bill, 2018 and the Industrial Development(Income Tax Relief) Amendment Bill, 2018.
The upper chamber also resolved to reconsider 11 out of the 17 bills the President declined assent, just as the lawmakers agreed to withdraw four out of the 17 rejected bills, apparently because of the observation raised by the president.
Resolutions of the Senate Wednesday, were sequel to the consideration of report of the Senator David Umaru (APC, Niger East) led Technical Committee on Declined Assent to bills by President Buhari.
It will be recalled that the Senate at its sitting on October 10, 2018, deliberated on Executive Communications from President Buhari wherein he relied on Sections 9(2) and 58(4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended, to decline assents to 17 Bills sent to him by the National Assembly.
After extensive deliberations on the Executive Communications, the Senate resolved and constituted a Technical Committee to among other things, to look into the issues raised in the Executive Communications and come up with appropriate recommendations to the Senate.
The four bills withdrawn by lawmakers include: The Chartered Institute of Entrepreneurship (Establishment) Bill, 2018; The Subsidy Legislation (Legislative Scrutiny) Bill, 2018; The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency Amendment Bill, 2018 and The Advance Free Fraud and Other Related Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2018.
Presenting the report, Senator David Umaru explained that out of the 17 bills recently rejected by the president, there were cogent reasons based on his action on some bills, but said that the committee also observed that the Senate needed to override the president’s veto on some of the bills.
Earlier in his contribution, Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe North) who stressed the need for a filter system where the legal department and the relevant committee would look at the bills thoroughly before passage to avoid situations of where the decline would be massive.
Also in his contribution, Senator James Manager (PDP, Delta South) who noted that there are so many things that will make them work together as Senators, said that as a system, they must put in place where complicated issues must be resolved, adding that something must be done to ensure that these most important bills were looked into for the president to assent to in the life of the present Senate.
