Senate Confirmation Triggers Constitutional Alarm
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned that the Tinubu Tax Act is constitutionally invalid following the Senate’s confirmation that the gazetted version of the tax law does not reflect what was duly passed by the National Assembly.
Atiku said a law published in a form never approved by lawmakers is not law at all, but a nullity. He stressed that Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution provides a clear and exclusive lawmaking sequence: passage by both chambers, presidential assent, and only then gazetting.
Gazetting, he noted, is merely an administrative act of publication. It does not create law, amend legislation, or cure defects arising from an improper legislative process.
Post-Passage Changes Amount to Forgery, Atiku Says
According to Atiku, any insertion, deletion, or modification made after a bill has been passed—without returning to the legislature—cannot be dismissed as a clerical error. In law, he argued, such conduct amounts to forgery.
He added that no administrative directive from Senate President Godswill Akpabio or Speaker of the House Tajudeen Abbas can validate a defective statute or justify re-gazetting without fresh legislative approval and renewed presidential assent.
Oversight at Risk as Re-Gazetting Is Floated
Atiku cautioned that attempts to rush a re-gazetting of the tax law while legislative investigation is stalled undermine parliamentary oversight and set a dangerous constitutional precedent.
“Illegality cannot be cured by speed,” he said, insisting that the only lawful path forward is fresh consideration, re-passage in identical form by both chambers of the National Assembly of Nigeria, renewed assent by Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and proper gazetting thereafter.
Process, Not Opposition to Tax Reform
The former Vice President emphasised that his intervention is not opposition to tax reform, but a defence of constitutional order and legislative integrity.
“This is not about blocking reform,” Atiku said. “It is about upholding the integrity of the lawmaking process and rejecting any attempt to normalise constitutional breaches through procedural shortcuts.”
