What has been on the lips of every Nigerian and those genuinely interested in governance for the past few days is the president Buhari’s failure to assent “The Electoral Act Amendment bill”. The bill in summary seeks to resolve issues regarding the use and adoption of modern technologies in the electoral process; the use of electronic voting technologies and the transmission of election results from polling units and the bill also prescribes a particular mode of primary election which is direct primaries for political parties to choose candidates seeking elective offices from their political parties.
Everyone has been asking constitutional lawyers and students of Nigerian law the one million dollar question “if the president has the constitutional power to not assent every bill sent to him after the bill has gone through the rigorous legislative process and what’s the next line of action after the bill has been vetoed”.
This is what the law says:
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
After the bill was passed by the law makers, the bill was sent to the Mr. President for assent. The bill was sent to the presidency for assent on the 19th of November, 2021 and this opens the president’s 30 days window to either assent the bill or decline his assent ie, the president had up till 19th of the December to either assent the bill and pass it into law or reject the bill. Mr. President failed to do so and the one month window (30 days) the president had to pass the bill has closed.
The constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) provides in s.58(4) that the president of Nigeria has the period of 30 days to either assent or decline a bill sent to him by the legislative house. When the president declines to assent the bill he should communicate his reason(s) for refusal to assent the bill to the law makers.
Section 58 went further to provide in (5) that when the president fails to exercise this constitutional power of assenting a bill and passing a bill sent to him by the law makers into law for the period of 30 days as granted him the power by s.58(4), the National Assembly can and shall override that power of the president by passing the bill into law by themselves but by passing the bill again by two-third (2/3) majority.
Now, as you can see that the Mr. President has the power or either assent a bill or decline his assent to a bill and that power was granted him constitutionally in section 58(4) and the lawmakers also have the power to pass a bill into law when the president fails to assent a bill within 30 days and this power was constitutionally granted to the law makers by s.58(5).
The excerpts of s.58(4&5) of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) is hereby reproduced here for your perusal:
S.58(4. 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.
S.58(5. 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.