Amid increasing scrutiny of the National Assembly’s tax legislation, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar cautioned that unauthorized changes to the gazetted laws violate the Constitution and undermine legislative integrity.
In a statement shared on his X handle on Sunday, Atiku insisted that any law not gazetted in the exact form passed by the National Assembly is null and void, equating such discrepancies to forgery.
“The confirmation by the Senate that the gazetted version of the Tinubu Tax Act does not reflect what was duly passed by the National Assembly raises a grave constitutional issue. A law that was never passed in the form in which it was published is not law. It is a nullity”, he said.
Atiku highlighted that the Constitution provides a clear, exclusive process for lawmaking, and administrative publication alone cannot rectify deviations from legislative approval.
“Under Section 58 of the 1999 Constitution, the lawmaking process is clear and exclusive: passage by both chambers, presidential assent, and only then gazetting. Gazetting is an administrative act of publication, it does not create law, amend law, or cure illegality. Where a gazette misrepresents legislative approval, it has no legal force”, he explained.
Condemning post-passage alterations without proper legislative approval, Atiku described as unlawful. “Any post-passage insertion, deletion, or modification of a bill without legislative approval amounts in law to forgery, not a clerical error. No administrative directive by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, or the Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, can validate such a defect or justify re-gazetting without re-passage and fresh presidential assent}, he said.
He also warned against attempts to rush re-gazetting while delaying proper legislative scrutiny. “Illegality cannot be cured by speed. The only lawful path is fresh legislative consideration, re-passage in identical form by both chambers, fresh assent, and proper gazetting”, Atiku added.
The former vice president clarified that his stance is not against tax reform but a defence of constitutional order and legislative integrity. “This is not opposition to tax reform. It is a defence of the integrity of the legislative process and a rejection of any attempt to normalise constitutional breaches through procedural shortcuts’, he said.
Last week, Atiku had called for the immediate suspension and investigation of the tax laws, describing the alleged post-passage alterations as “illegal and unauthorised” and an assault on constitutional democracy. He stressed that such overreach undermines legislative supremacy and reflects a government more focused on extraction than empowerment.
He urged the executive to suspend implementation, called on the National Assembly to rectify the alterations, and appealed to the judiciary to strike down any unconstitutional provisions”
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