NASS passes Bill to empower it to summon president, governors

The National Assembly has passed A bill for an act to alter the second schedule of the 1999 constitution which will grant NASS the powers to summon the president of Nigeria and state governors.

The bill was sponsored by Sergius Ogun (PDP–Edo). The bill grants both the Senate and the House of Assembly constitutional powers to invite the president and state governors for questioning.

The bill was passed on Tuesday during plenary as both chambers of the National Assembly voted separately, electronically.

Backstory

• On December 1, 2020, the House of Representatives had summoned the president to answer questions on the state of the country’s security.
• However, President Buhari declined to honour the invitation.
• Afterwards, Abubakar Malami in a statement dated December 9, 2020 noted that the National Assembly had no constitutional power to summon the President.
• Malami said the right of the President to engage the National Assembly and appear before it is inherently discretionary to the President and not at the behest of the National Assembly.
• This particular bill had passed second reading in March 2021 after which it was referred to the ad hoc committee on the review of the 1999 constitution.
• The Adhoc committee brought the report of the joint committee on constitution review to both chambers of the National Assembly last week.

What you should know

• While 77 senators voted in favour of the bill, 13 voted against the bill. 305 reps members voted in favour of the bill and 3voted against the bill.
• The bill seeks to amend the constitution to compel the President and governors to appear before parliament to respond to issues of national security and other related matters.
• The bill seeks to alter Section 67 of the Principal Act by inserting another subsection(4) after subsection (3).
• It provides that “Nothing in this section shall preclude the National Assembly from summoning the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to attend a joint session of the National Assembly to answer questions on national security or any issue whatsoever, over which the National Assembly has powers to make laws”. 
• The bill also seeks alteration of section 108 of the principal act to insert another subsection which provides that “Nothing in this section shall preclude the House of Assembly of the State from summoning the Governor of the State to attend a sitting of the House of Assembly to answer questions on security or on any issue whatsoever, over which the House of Assembly has powers to male laws.”
• The bill further seeks to alter Section 129 of the Principal Act to insert (3) after subsection (2). Which provides that “Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Constitution, any person who after having been summoned to attend, fails, refuses or neglects to do so and does not excuse such failure, refusal or neglect to the satisfaction of the House or the Committee in question, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to such punishment as shall be prescribed by a Act of the National Assembly.”