Former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar said no amount of administrative directive by the President of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, or the Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, can validate the gazetted version of President Bola Tinubu’s Tax Act.
Atiku in a statement on X formerly Twitter on Sunday, added that any post-passage insertion, deletion, or modification of a bill without legislative approval amounts in law to forgery, not a clerical error.
The former vice president who said he is not opposed to tax reform, stated that a re-gazetting of a bill without re-passage and fresh presidential assent is a nullity.
“The attempt to rush a re-gazetting while stalling legislative investigation undermines parliamentary oversight and sets a dangerous precedent.
“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,” he stated.
Atiku stated that 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 maintained that his position is not against tax reform but a defence of the integrity of the legislative process and a rejection of any attempt to normalise constitutional breaches through procedural shortcuts.
