President Bola Tinubu has declined assent to two bills recently passed by the National Assembly.
The two bills are the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology Establishment Bill, 2025, and the National Library Trust Fund Establishment Amendment Bill, 2025.
Mr Tinubu conveyed this in two separate letters addressed to Senate President Godswill Akpabio and read at plenary on Tuesday.
The president, in a letter on the bill seeking to establish the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology, stated that it was “tainted with fundamental defects.”
“Section 18 of the bill expands the source of funding for the National Transport Logistics Research to include one per cent of freight on every import and every export from Nigeria without their approval.
“In addition, the bill is tainted by the Federal Executive Council, and more so when the institute is to be funded by the federal government itself,” said Mr Tinubu.
Mr Tinubu also said that section 21(2) allows the institute to borrow without the president’s consent, except when the amount exceeds N50 million. He stated that there is no justification for removing the requirement for the president’s approval.
“The provision could be abused, as the incident could have been a major one or a financial violation of its responsibility; this will amount to serious financial abuse,” he said.
On section 23(4), regarding the power to invest surplus funds, the president stated that since the institute is to be funded by the federal government and money appropriated by the government for any agency is usually projected and accounted for, it is unlikely to have surpluses.
“The issue of investing surplus funds is usually applicable to agencies that have a surplus fund that is not funded by the federal government of Nigeria but generates revenue to spend.
“In addition, section 21 states that it is the surplus fund of the Institute that should be invested, while section 23 states that any of the institute’s funds could be invested. This can allow funds other than surpluses to be diverted for investment purposes from their original purposes.
“Section 18 requires money in the form to be applied toward promotion of the objectives and functions of the act; it does not include or recognise the investment of the funds of the institute. This seems contradictory to section 23, which proposes to allow the institute to put surplus funds,” the president said.
The president cited ambiguity in the National Library Trust Fund (Establishment) Amendment Bill 2025 with existing laws and policies.
According to the president, the bill contradicts core government policies on funding public agencies, taxation, public service remuneration, and age and tenure limits for public servants.
He said that enacting the bill in its current form would create an unsustainable precedent against public interest.
Mr Akpabio thanked Mr Tinubu for taking the time to go through each and every bill passed by the National Assembly.
“We will do justice to all the observations in the bill,” he stated.
(NAN)