By Kolawole Ojebisi
President Bola Tinubu has written the House of Representatives stating why he can’t approve the Federal University of Education Numan, Adamawa State (Establishment) Bill, 2024.
The letter was read on the floor of the Green Chamber on Tuesday, by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu.
According to the letter, Tinubu declined his assent to the bill over Section 22 of the bill, which grants the authority to dispose of land belonging to the federal institution to the Adamawa State Governor.
While raising concern over the section of the bill, Tinubu noted that the president has authority on issues relating to Federal Government-owned property, especially federal-owned universities and not the government.
“Pursuant to Section 58(4) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, I hereby convey to the House of Representatives my decision taken on December 23, 2024, to decline presidential assent to the Federal University of Education, Numan Establishment Bill 2024 recently passed by the National Assembly.
“I am declining assent to the bill as Section 22 of the bill confers the authority to the disposal of the land of the university on the governor and not the President as it ought to be in the case of land belonging to the Federal Government,” the letter read in part.
Recall that the bill, sponsored by the lawmaker representing Adamawa South Senatorial District, Binos Yaroe, was passed by the National Assembly in 2024 and transmitted to the President for assent.
Meanwhile, Yaroe had earlier stated that Tinubu did not reject the bill, noting that he only pointed out clerical errors in the proposed legislation.
He disclosed this at a stakeholders’ forum last week in the Mayo-Belwa Local Government Area of Adamawa State,
“The President pointed out certain errors in the bill that needed to comply with the constitution. For instance, we mistakenly assigned the power to grant land authority to the governor instead of the President, who is the rightful visitor for the institution. We will rectify this error by replacing the governor with the president in the bill,” he explained.
