Former President Goodluck Jonathan has praised past sessions of Nigeria’s National Assembly for their independence and courage in standing up to presidential authority by overriding vetoes on key legislation.
Speaking on Wednesday evening at the Champions of Nigerian Content Awards Dinner hosted by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Jonathan reflected on the era when the legislature acted decisively and with autonomy.
The former president, who received the Nigerian Content Lifetime Achievement Award at the event, recounted his experience as Acting President in 2010 when he signed the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Bill into law. He described the bill, championed by Senator Lee Maeba of Rivers State and others, as a product of a dynamic legislature.
“When I was acting President in 2010, and the National Assembly presented the bill, I promptly signed it and we quickly established a monitoring body. Someone like Lee Maeba, the bill’s originator, and his group also deserve recognition. That was a period when the National Assembly truly lived up to its name,” Jonathan said.
The ex-President also cited the passage of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Act in 2000 as a defining moment of legislative independence, recalling how the National Assembly overrode then-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s refusal to assent to the bill.
“In 2000, the NDDC bill was also vetoed by the National Assembly. They overrode President Obasanjo’s refusal. Typically, in other countries, it is the President who vetoes bills,” he said.
“But in Nigeria, during the law-making process, it is the National Assembly that can exercise the veto. If the President does not assent to a bill within 30 days, the National Assembly can reconvene and, with a two-thirds majority calculated by headcount, not voice vote, enact the bill into law.
“That is how the NDDC Act came into being, thanks to a truly vibrant National Assembly. I would like to use this opportunity to commend Lee Maeba and his team.”
VANGUARD
