President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has declined assent to the Federal University of Education, Numan (Establishment) Bill, 2024.
The President cited legal and typographical errors in the document passed by the National Assembly.
In a letter dated January 10, 2025, read by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas at Tuesday’s plenary, the President stated four key reasons for rejecting the bill.
He pointed out that Section 22 of the bill wrongly gives state governors the authority to approve the disposal of land belonging to the university, a federal institution, instead of the President.
The President observed several typographical errors, including the misspelling of “statutes” as “statues” in two instances, the omission of the preposition “of” in a crucial clause, and the incorrect spelling of “one-third” as “on-third.”
Tinubu said: “Pursuant to Section 58(4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), I hereby convey to the House of Representatives, my decision on 23rd December 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 due to the following; a) Section 22 of the Bill accords the authority to consent to the disposal of land to the Governor and not the President as ought to be the case in respect of land belonging to a Federal Government entity (in the case of Universities);
“The word “statutes” is spelled as “statues” in items 13 and 15 under arrangement of sections;
“The preposition “of” is omitted between the word “award” and “degree” in section 25(4)(b), and d) The phrase “one-third” is spelled as “on-third” in article 4(3) of the third schedule to the Bill.
