About 80 Civil Society Organizations under Coalition for Good Governance, have called on the National Assembly to decline concurrence to the Central Gaming Bill before it.
At a news conference at Ogba, Convener, Comrade Nelson Ekujumi described the action to legislate on a bill not under the concurrent list of the federal government as illegal and unconstitutional.
He described the passage of the bill from the lower chamber to its own legislative machinery for consideration as an assault on legislative integrity, honour, national security, democracy and a promotion of lawlessness.
“The legislature cannot directly overturn a specific Supreme court judgment, In this case the underlying law is the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria and having not amended the Constitution of Nigeria to include in the exclusive legislative list item such as lottery, gambling and gaming, the Central Gaming Bill as currently constituted directly conflicts and contradicts the provisions of the extant Constitution of Nigeria and a subsisting and binding judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on the subject. Consequently, as at today the National Assembly can only legislate on lottery, game and gambling for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja”
Comrade Ekujumi explained that the legislature cannot directly overturn a specific Supreme court judgment, without amending the Constitution of Nigeria to include in Gaming Bill in the exclusive legislative list item such as lottery, gambling and gaming in conflict to judgment by the Supreme Court.
“Ruling on the matter, the Supreme Court in a unanimous judgement consisting of seven justices held that the National Assembly lacked the powers to legislate on issues relating to lottery in respect of all states of the federation, except the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. The court ruled that such powers only reside with the state Houses of Assembly, which possess exclusive jurisdiction over lottery.
At page 60 of the judgment, the Supreme Court ruled thus:
“Lottery and gaming activities while generating revenue does not fall within the core category of economic activities envisaged by the Constitution under Section 16 (4)(b) and cannot be regulated by the provisions of an Act of the National Assembly.”
At page 66, the Court further held:
“…Consequently, the legislative authority of each State House of Assembly encompasses, among other matters, the power to regulate activities such as lotteries and other forms of gaming. I therefore hold that the National Assembly lacks the competence to enact the National Lottery Act 2005, as “lottery” is not included in either the Exclusive or Concurrent Legislative Lists in the Second Schedule of the Nigerian Constitution and as such, the subject matter lies entirely outside the legislative competence of the National Assembly. In the circumstances, the National Lottery Act, 2005 is therefore hereby declared unconstitutional, having been enacted ultra vires the legislative authority of the National Assembly.”
“Therefore, if the Supreme Court which is the highest court in the land adjudicate on an issue of dispute between the federal government and states governments, its judgement automatically becomes a law, thus, we are at a loss to rationalize the reason for the national assembly made up of the Senate and the house of representative attempting to illegally and unconstitutionally rewrite the law, other than to undermine democracy, national security and the constitution by this voyage of lawlessness which stands condemned in all ramifications”.
The CSOs unanimously demanded an unreserved apology to Nigerians by the House of Representatives for what it termed as assault on legislative integrity, honour, the constitution, democracy, and national security for the passage of the vexatious and illegal bill.
Just last week, the Lagos State government also condemned the passage of the Central Gaming Bill by the House of Representatives and urged the Senate to also decline concurrence for the passage of the bill at the National Assembly.
Reporting by Yemisi Dada