Legal analyst Opatola Victor has described discrepancies between laws passed by the National Assembly and those later gazetted as deliberate alterations rather than clerical errors, warning that such practices threaten constitutional order and public trust in Nigeria’s legislative process.
Speaking during an interview on ARISE NEWS on Friday, Victor reacted to controversies surrounding the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and earlier disputes over recently passed tax laws, where the versions assented to or gazetted reportedly differed from those approved by lawmakers.
According to him, any law assented to by the president that materially differs from what was passed by the National Assembly amounts to what he termed “constitutional sabotage” and should not be binding on Nigerian citizens.
Victor explained that the issue goes beyond minor administrative mistakes, stressing that gazettes are special legal instruments meant to serve as public notice, making their contents authoritative and enforceable under law.
He argued that where multiple versions of a law exist or where gazetted provisions conflict with what legislators passed, citizens cannot reasonably be held accountable under such laws, describing the situation as legally dangerous.
Drawing parallels with the earlier controversy over Nigeria’s tax laws, Victor said the National Assembly’s attempt to release certified true copies after public backlash was an indirect admission that the gazetted versions were flawed.
He maintained that the altered provisions in the tax laws affected fundamental issues such as tax liability and obligations, making it impossible to dismiss the changes as clerical oversights.
On the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, Victor said the legislature failed to reflect Nigerians’ demand for mandatory electronic transmission of election results, instead leaving the process to the discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He noted that this discretion had already eroded public trust during the 2023 general elections, when INEC, according to him, made assurances it later failed to uphold, breaching voters’ legitimate expectations.
Victor warned that repeated legislative inconsistencies within a short period suggest a deeper problem of internal incoherence within the National Assembly, rather than isolated administrative lapses.
He called on Nigerians to hold their representatives accountable, cautioning that unless the pattern is addressed, confidence in democratic institutions and the rule of law would continue to decline.
Follow us on:
