President Muhammadu Buhari has failed to sign into law, Constitution amendment bills on power to summon President and Governors.
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, stated that the Senate will investigate the 19 Constitution Alteration Bills after it was rejected by the President Muhammadu Buhari.
Speaking during plenary on Tuesday in Abuja, President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan lamented the refusal of presidential assent on the Constitution alteration bill and 18 others by President Buhari.
He added that out of the 35 constitution alteration bill forwarded to the President in January for assent, only 16 were assented to by the President.
The National Assembly had in January transmitted 35 Constitutional Alteration bills to the President for assent but Buhari had on Friday last week assented to 16 out of the 35 bills.
The most striking of the assented 16 bills according to him, was the fifth alteration bill number 6 which makes provisions for financial independence of State Houses of Assembly and Judiciary, those that dwell on power devolutions in the areas of moving Railway services, Correctional Center’s and power generation and distribution, from the exclusive list to concurrent list.
The rejected was Alteration Bill No. 7 which sought an Act to alter the provisions of the 1999 Constitution to compel obedience or compliance with legislative summons.
Also rejected was the Fifth Alteration Bill No 29 which sought for an Act to alter the provisions of the 1999 Constitution “to provide for a state of the nation and state-of-the-state address by the President and Governor.”
Also rejected was the Fifth Alteration Bill No 22, which sought an Act to alter the provisions of the 1999 Constitution “to specify the period within which the President or the governor of state shall present the Appropriation Bill before the National Assembly or House of Assembly.”
Also rejected was bill No. 30, which sought an Act to alter the provisions of the 1999 Constitution to include former heads of the National Assembly in the Council of State.
Also rejected was Bill No. 14, which sought an Act to alter the 1999 Constitution to move Fingerprints, Identification and Criminal Records from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List.
Lawan said, “We sent 35 Constitution Amendment bills. Sixteeen of them were approved while 19 of them were rejected. We will find out why those bills were rejected because we put a lot of resources into the process.
“We will continue to engage the executive and go through the bills and see if there are issues that we can deal with within the short period, we will continue to pursue them.
“But if the issues are cumbersome, we can leave it for the 10th Assembly.”
