The Member of Parliament of the South Dayi Constituency, Hon. Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, has indicated that the President is obligated by law to assent to a bill submitted by Parliament to him, the President, within a time limit.
He argued that Article 106 Clause 8 of the 1992 Constitution states that where the President refuses to assent to a bill, the President has two options to choose from. The first option states that, the President must provide the reason, to the Speaker of Parliament, for his refusal and recommend amendments to the bill within fourteen (14) days. He noted that the President cannot ignore the bill as he resolves.
“The second option is if you are minded as the President to refer the bill to the Council of State for further consideration, you must inform Parliament that you have done that. The Council of State also within 30 days upon that referral must get back to the President with the feedback on the bill and the President will remit that to Parliament and Parliament will consider it under Article 90. The procedure is very clear there”.
Hon. Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor
Hon. Dafeamekpor noted that should the bill be remitted back to the President after a two-thirds majority approval from Parliament, the President is mandated to assent to the bill. He stated that it is unconstitutional for the President to have stated that he would stay his hand until after the Supreme Court has made its judgment on the bill.
He opined that the President should not have commented on the bill when the bill had not yet been submitted to his office. He accused the President of orchestrating the lawsuit filed by Dela Skyy and the Finance Minister’s letter to delay assenting to the bill. He indicated that the President’s decision to assent to the bill cannot be questioned as long as this is in line with the Constitution hence the Supreme Court cannot prevent him from assenting to the bill even if there is a lawsuit filed against it.
“That is regular law. You cannot enchant a constitutional officer from performing his functions of office. It is as though I go to court against the Chief Justice and I’m questioning certain things about the Chief Justice and I pray for an injunction that the Chief Justice must not perform the functions of her office until such time that the suit is determined on its merit. No court will grant you such an injunction”.
Hon. Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor
Parliament To Be In Disuse
Hon. Dafeamekpor disclosed that the Parliament will be in abeyance if the President refuses to assent to the bill when it is finally submitted to him. He noted that by the President’s behavior, it is likely that he will not assent to the bill. He clarified that Parliament cannot proceed unless the conditions of Article 106 are met and the President’s action indicates that he, the President, is attempting to prevent the Parliament from taking any actions.
He specified that the reliefs that the lawsuit by Richard Skyy demanded, except for the one that seeks to stop the operation of the law that criminalizes same-sex relationships, are all red herrings. “But they are in Supreme Court challenging that we didn’t have a quorum to pass the law” he added.
Moreover, Hon. Dafeamekpor indicated that no one except for the individual presiding over the bill, in this case, the Speaker of Parliament, has the authority to decide whether or not the bill will occasion a charge on the Public Consolidated Fund. He argued that in effect, the Finance Minister’s argument does not hold any weight in deciding whether the bill should be assented to or not.
Furthermore, he declared that the court action taken by Richard Sky would fail because the anti-LGBTQ bill is not law yet. He indicated that the court can only decide on an existing law and not a passed bill of the Parliament. “A bill is not a law that the Supreme Court can pronounce on, I’m basing my argument on a decision the Supreme Court made just last year, not five years ago” he stated.
Conclusively, should the President decide to delay taking action concerning the bill, Parliament will have no workable option than to wait for the President to make his decision. Meanwhile, refusing to assent to the bill may compromise the President’s party’s performance at the 2024 polls.
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