On Friday, March 17, President Muhammadu Buhari assented to 16 Constitution alteration bills. It will be recalled that the National Assembly, in January 2023, transmitted to the President, 35 Alteration Bills it had passed in March 2022, which were subsequently passed by the State Houses of Assembly. Out of this lot, the President assented to 16 bills. Reacting to the development upon resumption of Senate plenary on March 21, President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan, stated that the chamber has constituted a Committee to probe President Buhari\u2019s refusal to assent to the other 19 Constitution alteration bills transmitted to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The passage of the 16 bills into law\nalter the provisions of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, which has undergone\nfour alteration exercises that introduced new provisions or amended existing\nprovisions. One of such new provisions introduced in the 4th<\/sup>\nConstitution alteration exercise provides for the financial independence of\nState Houses of Assembly and the State Judiciary. However, as a result of\nnon-compliance with this provision by State Governors, President Buhari issued\nan executive order to compel them to comply with the provision. This order was\nlater declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. A similar bill on the\nfinancial independence of State\nlegislature and State Judiciary was one of the 16 bills that just received\nPresidential assent. However, this subsequent Constitution alteration on the\nsubject makes further provisions for the\nimplementation of legislative and judicial financial autonomy at State level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The 16 bills assented to by President\nBuhari include: <\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Fifth Alteration (No.1), the Bill\nseeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to\nchange the names of Afikpo North and Afikpo South Local Government Areas; and\nfor related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Fifth Alteration (No.2), the Bill\nseeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to\nchange the name of Kunchi Local Government Area; and for related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Fifth Alteration (No.3), the Bill\nseeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to\nchange the names of Egbado North and Egbado South Local Government Areas; and\nfor related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Fifth Alteration (No.4), the Bill\nseeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to\ncorrect the name of Atigbo Local Government Area; and for related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Fifth Alteration (No.5), the Bill\nseeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to\ncorrect the name of Obia\/Akpor Local Government Area; and for related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. Fifth Alteration (No.6), the Bill\nseeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to\nprovide for the financial independence of State Houses of Assembly and State\nJudiciary; and for related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. Fifth Alteration (No.8), the Bill\nseeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to\nregulate the first session and inauguration of members-elect of the National\nand State Houses of Assembly; and for related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8. Fifth Alteration (No.9), the Bill\nseeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to\ndelete the reference to the provisions of the Criminal Code, Penal Code,\nCriminal Procedure Act, Criminal Procedure Code or Evidence Act; and for\nrelated matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 9. Fifth Alteration (No.10), the Bill\nseeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to\nexclude the period of intervening events in the computation of time for\ndetermining pre-election petitions, election petitions and appeals; and for\nrelated matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10. Fifth Alteration (No.12), the Bill\nseeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to\nprovide for the post call qualification of the Secretary of the National\nJudicial Council; and for related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11. Fifth Alteration (No.15), the Bill\nseeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to\ndelete the item \u201cprisons\u201d in the Exclusive Legislative List and redesignate it\nas \u201cCorrectional Services\u201d in the Concurrent Legislative List; and for related\nmatters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 12. Fifth Alteration (No.16), the Bill\nseeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to\nmove the item \u201crailways\u201d from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent\nLegislative List; and for related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 13. Fifth Alteration (No.17), the Bill\nseeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to\nallow States generate, transmit and distribute electricity in areas covered by\nthe national grid; and for related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 14. In Fifth Alteration (No.23), the\nBill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999\nto require the President and Governors to submit the names of persons nominated\nas Ministers or Commissioners within sixty days of taking the oath of office\nfor confirmation by the Senate or State House of Assembly; and for related\nmatters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 15. In Fifth Alteration (No.32), the\nBill seeks alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to\ncorrect the error in the definition of the boundary of the Federal Capital\nTerritory, Abuja; and for related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 16. In Fifth Alteration (No.34), the Bill\nseeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to\nrequire the Government to direct its policy towards ensuring right to food and\nfood security in Nigeria; and for related matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Friday, March 17, President Muhammadu Buhari assented to 16 Constitution alteration bills. It will be recalled that the National Assembly, in January 2023, transmitted to the President, 35 Alteration Bills it had passed in March 2022, which were subsequently passed by the State Houses of Assembly. Out of this lot, the President assented to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3182,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177\/revisions\/3182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}