Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
With barely two months to the end of his second tenure, President Muhammadu Buhari, Friday, signed into law, a bill that mandates the President-elect and Governors-elect to submit the names of persons nominated as Ministers or Commissioners within 60 days of taking oath of office for confirmation by the Senate or State House of Assembly.
This, according to the Presidency, is in furtherance of Section 58 (4) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Buhari also signed into law, the State Houses of Assembly Financial and State Judiciary autonomy bills and 14 other constitutional amendment bills alongside three other bills.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Babajide Omoworare, disclosed this in a statement on in Abuja.
According to the statement, highlights of the assented Constitutional Alteration Bills, among others, are ensuring financial independence of State Houses of Assembly and State Judiciary; regulating the first session and inauguration of members-elect of the National and State Houses of Assembly and for related matters.
It read in part: “Others are ensuring that the President and governors submit the names of persons nominated as ministers or commissioners within 60 days of taking the oath of office for confirmation by the Senate or State House of Assembly; and for related matters; enabling states generate, transmit, and distribute electricity in areas covered by the national grid; and for related matters.
“Excluding the period of intervening events in the computation of time for determining pre-election matters petitions, etc; regulating the first session and inauguration of members-elect of the national and state assemblies; changing prisons to correctional service and re-designate correctional service in the concurrent list; and moving item “railway” from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list.”
According to the statement, Buhari also assented to three other bills: The Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology Act, The Nigerian Institute of International Relations Act, and The Federal Medical Centres (Amendment) Acts.
