San: President Didn’t Breach Any Law By Not Submitting Full List

Shedding light over whether President Bola Tinubu has have broken the law if he had failed to submit the full list of ministerial nominees by today, being the deadline for him to submit the names to the Senate, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Solo Akuma, posited that if what the President says what he has submitted is not the full list he has not breached the law. In his words: “If what he has submitted is not the full list, he has complied with the law.

Another angle to it is that if in the letter he used to convey to the Senate the list of nominees, and he says further names would be submitted, then he is not in breach of the law.” While stating that the breach does not come with any sanction, Chief Akuma said that the National Assembly is there to ensure that the President or governors do not delay unduly. “It took the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari six months to come up with his list of ministerial nominees, which is not proper for any administration.”

Another SAN, Mr Olalekan Ojo, suggested that even if the President had not submitted the full list of his ministerial nominees to the red chamber of the National Assembly, he would not have breached any law. “If I am right, and go- ing by what I am reading here, and seeing on my television, which states that, ‘President submits additional list’, it means the worries as to whether the president will not be breaching the law becomes impotent. “We must understand one thing.

There is a wall of difference between regulations that are merely directory which suggests that a particular action should be taken within a stipulated period where no penalty is stated or consequence of noncompliance. “So, If a provision of the law or a clause of any law is merely directory, that means failure to do it by that time, you have breached, but there are no consequences and that does not mean that he can no longer send the list or that any list he sends thereafter will be rendered null and void.”

The 1999 Constitution (as amended), gives the President 60 days to submit a list of ministers and Tinubu, who was sworn in on May 29, 2023, has only a window till today for the submission of the list.

Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution as states that: “(a) the nomination of any person to the office of a Minister for confirmation by the Senate shall be done within sixty days after the date the President has taken the oath of office; “(b) not less than ten percent of persons appointed as Ministers shall be women: Provided that the President may appoint a Minister at any other time during his tenure and such appointment shall be subject to confirmation by the Senate.”

The Constitution also adds that the President shall appoint at least a minister from each of the 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja – only 24 names were sent to the Senate yesterday.