President-elect may resume in Aso Rock before swearing-in

 

BY OUR EDITOR

If President Muhammadu Buhari at the end of the day assents to the bill and it becomes law, a Nigerian president-elect will henceforth have to resume at the seat of government even before he or she is officially sworn-in.

This is because the House of Representatives Tuesday passed a bill seeking to make a president-elect resume in the Presidential Villa to understudy the outgoing President ahead of inauguration.

Presidential election is held not less than 90 days to the expiration of the outgoing administration, according to the law.

THE PUNCH reports that the bill proposes that during the waiting period, the incoming president would be empowered to review the financial records and activities of the incumbent.

Refusal by the incumbent to cooperate with or provide requested documents by the incoming officials shall upon conviction attract a fine of N10 million, or six months imprisonment, or both.

These are some of the proposals in the Presidential (Transition) Bill, 2016, which the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, sponsored in the 8th National Assembly and reintroduced in July 2019, which the House has passed for third reading.

The bill, ‘A Bill for an Act to Provide for the Smooth and Orderly Transfer of Power from One Government to Another and Other Related Matters Thereto,’ reads in part, “When at any general election for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the incumbent President is not re-elected, the President shall within two weeks of the declaration of the President-elect as the winner of the election provide space for not more than 10 persons designated by the President-elect to begin a review and analysis of budgeted expenditures during the tenor  of the current president, review all other necessary documents as may be requested by the President-elect’s transition team.”

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