President Goodluck
President Goodluck Jonathan says he has yet to see a copy of the State-of-the-Nation Address Bill recently passed by the National Assembly, hence he has not signed the document into law.
Jonathan spoke in the early hours of Friday during a dinner he hosted in honour of the Peoples Democratic Party family at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Senate had on May 9 passed the bill, urging the President to urgently sign it into law.
If assented to, the President would be mandated to deliver a state-of-the-nation address to a joint sitting of the National Assembly on the first legislative day of July every year.
The bill makes it mandatory for the President to address a joint session of the National Assembly not less than six months from the date of enactment of the Appropriation Act by the National Assembly.
The event was attended by President of the Senate, David Mark; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal; and other principal officers and members of the National Assembly, among many others.
Jonathan said it was Mark who just informed him of the presence of the bill in his (the President’s) office.
He, however, did not say whether he would sign the bill into law after seeing it.
“It was the Senate President that just told me here that there is a bill by the National Assembly in my office compelling the President to present annual reports every July. I have not seen the bill yet,” he said.
After the Senate adopted the harmonised version of the bill earlier in May, Mark had urged the President to expedite action on it, saying, “2013 is the first state-of-the-nation address by Mr. President and I hope that he will assent to it as quickly as possible.”
Mark’s appeal came after the harmonisation of the versions of the bill by the Senate and the House of Representatives, which had affected its passage earlier on March 13, 2013.
Presenting the bill earlier for adoption, Chairman of Conference Committee on the State of the Nation Address Bill, Senator Dahiru Awaisu Kuta (PDP, Niger East), had explained that the bill “seeks to make the President accountable to Nigerian people as represented by the National Assembly and to render account of his stewardship to the nation and allow for an input from members of the National Assembly towards the good governance of the nation.”
According to him, the Senate had earlier considered and passed the bill on March 13, 2013, after the House of Representatives did a similar thing on December 20, 2011, and forwarded it for concurrence by the Senate.
He added that the bill was re-introduced by the seventh Senate for consideration and passage, having been denied assent by the President after passage by the sixth Senate.
If assented, the President shall address the joint sitting of the National Assembly on issues ranging from national security, the economy, foreign policy to social justice.
