President Bola Tinubu has declined assent to two bills while transmitting two fresh executive bills to the House of Representatives.
In letters read by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas during Wednesday’s plenary, Tinubu withheld assent to the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management of Nigeria (Amendment) Bill, 2026, and the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (Amendment) Bill, 2026.
On the purchasing institute bill, Tinubu said some clauses wrongly sought to hand the institute regulatory powers over private and incorporated entities, including compelling firms to report procurement appointments, imposing fines on employers who hire non-members to head procurement units, and authorising inspection visits to companies. He said these amounted to unreasonable restrictions beyond the institute’s statutory powers, noting it is not Nigeria’s procurement regulator, and asked the National Assembly to fix the issues and retransmit the bill.
The President also rejected the Raw Materials Research and Development Council bill, citing structural errors and drafting defects, including a long title that failed to properly reflect the bill’s objectives.
Separately, Tinubu transmitted the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2026, aimed at strengthening the governance of public senior secondary education, and the Administration of Criminal Justice Bill, 2026, which seeks to replace the 2015 Administration of Criminal Justice Act.
The education bill was cleared by the Federal Executive Council on April 30, 2026, and vetted by the Ministry of Justice before transmission.
The criminal justice bill targets delays in investigations and prosecutions, weak inter-agency coordination, and poor case management under the existing law. Key reforms include scrapping trial-within-trial proceedings for confessional statements, creating a national sex offenders register under the Attorney-General’s office, setting up a Witness Support Fund, introducing plea forms for arraignment, and restructuring the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Council with an Executive Secretary and wider stakeholder representation.
The bill will apply to the FCT and other federal courts. Tinubu urged the House to pass both bills swiftly.
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