President Buhari: Why I refuse to sign Peace Corps bill

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, February 27, said financial implications of funding the Peace Corps bill recently passed by the National Assembly was one of the reasons why he withheld his assent to bill.


The president in a letter titled ‘PRESIDENTIAL DECISION TO DECLINE ASSENT TO NIGERIAN PEACE CORPS (ESTABLISHMENT) BILL 2017 RECENTLY PASSED BY THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY’, read by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on Tuesday, February 27, cited a number reasons for his decision.

President Buhari in the letter cited ”security concerns regarding the proposed outfit being authorised to undertake activities currently being performed by extant security and law enforcement agencies.”

He also cited financial implications of funding the establishment and operations of the proposed peace corps adding that the scarce financial resources may pose serious challenge to the government.

Ossai Nicholas, a member of the House of Representatives from Delta state, in reaction to the decision of the president described the action as the beauty of lawmaking.

Nicholas said the house will sit and x-ray the reasons that the president had given to see whether ”they are reasonable or probably not”, adding that lawmaking does not end only at the doorstep of the legislature.

He further said if the reasons given by President Buhari are not germane, ”he’ll personally lead a lobbying process to make sure the house vetos him.”

Yusuf Ayinla, another lawmaker from Lagos state, said the issue must be looked at from the angle of unemployment.

He said the bill will help tackle the menace of unemployment in Nigeria and the glory would have gone to the president ”but it is now a free opportunity for the National Assembly to take all the glory.”

“That bill will help the president himself for lifting zero employment to a better place,” he said.