•Atiku and Tinubu
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that as long as the Senate has confirmed that the gazetted version of the Tax Act does not reflect what was duly passed by the National Assembly, it makes it a nullity.
Atiku said this in a statement issued last night personally signed by him and made available to The Frontier.
“A law that was never passed in the form in which it was published is not law. It is a nullity,” he said.
“Any post-passage insertion, deletion, or modification of a bill without legislative approval amounts in law to forgery, not a clerical error,” he added.
According to the former vice president, illegality cannot be cured by speed. The only lawful path is fresh legislative consideration, re-passage in identical form by both chambers, fresh assent, and proper gazetting.
READ THE FULL STATEMENT BELOW:
PRESS RELEASE
The confirmation by the Senate that the gazetted version of the Tinubu Tax Act does not reflect what was duly passed by the National Assembly raises a grave constitutional issue. A law that was never passed in the form in which it was published is not law. It is a nullity.
Under Section 58 of the 1999 Constitution, the lawmaking process is clear and exclusive: passage by both chambers, presidential assent, and only then gazetting. Gazetting is an administrative act of publication; it does not create law, amend law, or cure illegality. Where a gazette misrepresents legislative approval, it has no legal force.
Any post-passage insertion, deletion, or modification of a bill without legislative approval amounts in law to forgery, not a clerical error. No administrative directive by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, or the Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, can validate such a defect or justify a re-gazetting without re-passage and fresh presidential assent.
The attempt to rush a re-gazetting while stalling legislative investigation undermines parliamentary oversight and sets a dangerous precedent. Illegality cannot be cured by speed. The only lawful path is fresh legislative consideration, re-passage in identical form by both chambers, fresh assent, and proper gazetting.
This is not opposition to tax reform. It is a defence of the integrity of the legislative process and a rejection of any attempt to normalise constitutional breaches through procedural shortcuts.
Atiku Abubakar
Vice President of Nigeria, 1999-2007.
