Thread by @toluogunlesi

This is a thread about Bills sent to the President by NASS, for assent. Recall that just yesterday PMB declined assent to five Bills. With reasons, of course, per usual.

We have a problem, people, and I’ll explain why. Hopefully the 9th NASS (incoming) can help.

The reasons for the withholding of Presidential Assent tend to be similar. I’ll highlight the common ones:

One is that a good number of these bills tend to be rent-seeking in nature. They seek to carve out a special ‘Fund’ for the exclusive benefit of an Agency.

So, 1% here, 2% there, 0.5% there, too many Bills have clauses that are designed to corner some money. 1% of total tax paid on the Oxygen in the atmosphere, for an Oxgyen Development Fund that will be managed by the Nigerian Atmospheric Management Commission. You get the drift.

Some of the Taxes/Levies are new, others are meant to be taken from existing Taxes/Levies, like VAT. Problematic. For example the Nigerian Film Commission Bill sought to take 5% of all VAT on “all film related activities”, for a “National Film Development Fund.”

A Nat. Film Devpt Fund is of course a great idea, but there’s a constitutional problem that comes up when you try to corner a portion of VAT for it. VAT does not belong exclusively to FG; States & LGAs take the bulk of it. So how do you justify using it to fund a Federal Agency?

Another issue with the NFC Bill, & which the President explained in his letter to NASS, is that it sought to take from TV license money generated by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), & allocate it to the new Film Commission. In contravention of the Act establishing NBC

Which leads to another major reason for the withholding of Presidential Assent: Bill conflicting with OR duplicating existing legislation. That is, a Bill gets passed that contains provisions that contradict or duplicate provisions of one or more existing Acts.

One of the Bills the President declined to assent to yesterday is the Chartered Institute of Pension Practitioners Bill. The Institute is similar to and duplicates the objectives of the Certified Pension Institute of Nigeria (CPIN). Pres highlighted this in his Letter to NASS.

Another major reason for the withholding of Presidential Assent is the quality of the drafting of some of these Bills. Poorly/clumsily worded, containing internal contradictions, lending self to confusing interpretation. At least one of the Bills declined yest had this problem.

Some of the versions of the declined Electoral Bill had this problem. Drafting issues. Which makes one wonder - surely NASS have the Budget to produce high(er) quality drafts of Bills. Surely. It’s a shame when a Bill has to be declined because it was poorly/clumsily worded.

Two things to note:

1. The President can only consider the versions sent to him, as sent. He cannot make any amendments or corrections on behalf of NASS. Can’t even remove a comma or add a full stop.

2. Bills declined are returned with explanation. It’s a documented process.

Many of the declined Bills of course combine elements of the various challenges listed above

The one I find most intriguing is the ‘rent seeking’ element. Agencies get NASS to add a clause that guarantees them a percentage of a Tax/Levy or existing Fund. Sweetest thing ever, lol

Problem is someone has to foot the Bill (apologies for the pun). The money has to come from somewhere: the private sector, elsewhere in the public sector, or citizens somehow have to pay for it. It’s predatory behavior, let’s be honest. Effortlessly Cornering other people’s sweat

We must have these conversations, about how Government works and how decisions get made. And there’s a massive education gap in here - the media and CSOs have an important mediating role here, letting Nigerians know the implication of assenting to or declining these Bills.

And of course by shining light on the Bill-making process, we can hopefully discourage ‘rentseeking’ clauses from being baked into them. We can also hopefully prevent duplication/overlap. The time & energy spent working on producing defective Bills must be seen a a needless COST.

Let nobody be tempted tomorrow to introduce a Chartered Institute of Social Media Overlords (CISMO) Bill, to be funded by a ‘small’ Levy of 0.5% of all Telco Data revenues, and 0.25% of the Universal Service Provision Fund.

One of the more egregious instances: 2016/17, NASS (Senate and HOR) swiftly passed one particularly weird Bill, which sought to convert someone’s personal NGO, into a Government paramilitary organization, with Govt funding etc.

PMB wasted no time declining Assent.

Meanwhile, instead of focusing on the real issues behind the rejections, this is how our papers decided to spin the story: Rejected Bills now 26 bla bla bla. Haven’t seen any in-depth exploration of the reasons adduced for the rejections, and of the Bill-making process generally

We can’t talk about rejected Bills without talking about the ones that have been signed into law. A couple of landmark ones. Let’s start w the Constitutional Amendment Bills:

1/Not Too Young To Run Bill
2/Bill granting financial autonomy to State Houses of Assembly & Judiciaries

3. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Establishment Act) 2018. Signed into law Nov 2018. Very significant because it gives long overdue legal backing to @NCDCgov - which was established in 2011 and for 7 years had no Establishment Act. (Yes you heard right).

4. Another landmark Bill the President has assented to is the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (FCCPA), on January 30, 2019. For the first time in Nigeria’s history we have unified and comprehensive Competition legislation. See #ALevelPlayingField for more.

5. In January 2019 PMB signed into Law the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018. Another very significant piece of legislation: google.com/amp/s/www.this…

Kudos to @nassnigeria for passing these Bills the President has assented to.

There are a number of other important Bills requiring swift conclusion:

- Amendment of the Deep Offshore & Inland Basins PSC Act

- Repeal and Re-Enactment of the Companies & Allied Matters Act (CAMA)

A few people have asked about the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), from which PMB withheld assent in 2018. One reason was that the draft Bill allocated an unjustifiable amount of funding to the new Petroleum Regulatory Commission (PRC), and PEF google.com/amp/s/www.prem…

See Section 26 SubS 3 of the declined Bill:

It allocated to the NPRC a whopping “10% of the revenue generated by the Commission for the Govt of the Federation.”

That’s coming from oil monies that should be shared by the 3 tiers of Govt o. For the new Commission to spend.