President Bola Tinubu has declined to sign two bills passed by the National Assembly, citing constitutional, drafting and structural problems that need fixing before either piece of legislation can become law: the Raw Materials Research and Development Council Amendment Bill 2026 and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management of Nigeria Establishment Amendment Bill.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio read both of Tinubu’s communications during plenary, referring them to the Senate Committee on Rules and Business with instructions to report back within four weeks. Invoking Section 58(4) of the 1999 Constitution, Tinubu explained he was compelled to withhold assent because both bills, as currently drafted, would undermine their own legal effectiveness if enacted. On the raw materials bill, he said the long title fails to capture the legislation’s core policy objective, promoting the development, protection, processing and value addition of Nigeria’s raw materials and strengthening local manufacturing, and should be rewritten to properly reflect the substance of the amendment. He also flagged Section 2 for incorrectly presenting the Council’s statutory functions as legislative objectives, conflating policy intentions with enforceable legal provisions that serve very different purposes, and objected to new provisions on value addition being awkwardly inserted between existing sections dealing with the Council’s finances and annual accounts, an arrangement he said distorts the structure of the principal Act and makes the amendment difficult to interpret, rendering the bill as currently proposed disjointed and incoherent.
On the purchasing and supply management bill, Tinubu said while most of the proposed amendments were commendable, certain clauses would grant the Institute regulatory powers well beyond its actual statutory mandate. He specifically objected to a proposed requirement that companies and other incorporated organisations notify the Institute within one month of appointing heads of procurement and supply chain, arguing the Institute, not being those organisations’ regulator, cannot compel independent entities that may not even be registered members to submit such information. He similarly rejected provisions empowering the Institute to inspect organisations, sanction employers and enforce compliance on entities established under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, calling such powers inconsistent with the Institute’s actual legal mandate. Despite withholding assent from both bills, Tinubu indicated that either could still receive his approval once the identified issues are corrected and the legislation is retransmitted, leaving the National Assembly free to amend the bills along his recommendations or, if it chooses, attempt to override the veto through the constitutional process.
