‘There was an omission’ — NDIC chair says Buhari signed ‘wrong’ bill reenacting agency’s role

Abdulhakeem Abdullateef, new board chairman of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), has asked President Bola Tinubu to probe the passage of the NDIC Act, 2023.

On May 26, Former President Muhammadu Buhari signed the NDIC (repeal and reenactment) bill of 2023 into law.

The new act repeals the NDIC Act, 2006 and makes the NDIC the insurer of all insurable deposit liabilities of insured institutions.

In a Facebook Live session on Monday, the NDIC chairman alleged that the bill assented to by the former president had certain sections that were not included in the version passed by the national assembly.

Abdullatteef’s session was captioned ‘Even If You Will Kill Me, I Will Tell Nigerians My Mind’.

Abdullateef, a former Lagos state commissioner for home affairs, said under the new law, the president is not allowed to appoint a managing director for the agency.

He said only the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was handed the responsibility of recommending someone to take up the position of the NDIC managing director.

“NDIC stinks. There is a lot of rot going on. They say ‘When you fight corruption, corruption fights you’. This is the purported new act of the NDIC and I tell you for nothing that this is ‘Emefiele’s act’. Here, they have taken away the powers of Mr President in respect of the NDIC,” he said.

“This document that was signed is materially different from the vote and proceedings of the National Assembly that passed it.”

Abdullateef, who wept during the session, said the NDIC should be a fully independent agency, not under the thumb of the CBN.

“I want Mr President not to act on this law until it is probed. Probe the passage of this law. Probe the inclusion of section 7 which takes away the right of ministry of finance, which takes away the responsibility of ministry of finance and replaced it with two directors from CBN,” he said.

“Probe why what is passed is fundamentally different from what was assented to. Probe what happened between the time the senate passed it and the house of representatives passed it and there was no divergence.

“Under the law, do you know the status of this new act? It is null and void. Anytime Mr President assents to a bill that is materially different from what was passed by the senate and the house of reps, it means there was a material omission and the law was not matured for assent.

“There is a need for the new administration to return this act to the National Assembly when it is proclaimed. They should investigate it and allow National Assembly members to debate.

“Mr President, don’t act on the new NDIC Act.”