Acts Authentication Act
An Act to make provision for the authentication and recording of Acts of National Assembly.
[Commencement.] [1st January, 1962]
1. Short title, etc.
(1) This Act may be cited as the Acts Authentication Act.
(2) This Act shall apply to all laws passed as Acts by the National Assembly after the coming into operation of this Act.
2. Authentication of Bills for assent
(1) The Clerk of the National Assembly shall forthwith after enactment, prepare a copy of each Bill as passed by both Houses of the National Assembly embodying all amendments agreed to, and shall endorse on the Bill and sign a certificate that the copy has been prepared as prescribed by this section and is a true copy of that Bill.
(2) The Clerk of the National Assembly shall, as from time to time directed by the President of the Senate, prepare a Schedule of Bills passed at any time during a session and intended to be presented for assent, and shall certify on the Schedule that it is a true and correct record.
(3) The Schedule shall set forth the long title of a Bill and a summary of its contents and the respective dates on which each Bill passed by each House of the National Assembly; and subject to the provisions of this section, when signed by the Clerk of the National Assembly, the certificate shall be conclusive for all purposes, and if a Bill in the Schedule is one to which section 58 (5) or 59 (4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 applies, the Schedule shall, in addition, be endorsed with the prescribed certificate of the President of the Senate in respect of that Bill.
[Cap. C23. L.N. 139 of 1965.]
(4) Nothing in this section shall abrogate any special requirements prescribed for the entrenched sections of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, and any other certificate shall be endorsed and signed by the Clerk of the National Assembly as directed by the President of the Senate, on the Bill before the preparation of the Schedule.
3. Presentations of Bills for assent
(1) The Schedule and copies of the Bills shall be presented to the President in duplicate, and if the President is satisfied, he shall cause the Schedule to be passed under the public seal of the Federation after affixing his signature to the Schedule; and unless otherwise prescribed, an Act shall come into operation on the date when the Schedule was
assented to by the President.
[L.N. 139 of 1965.]
(2) A duplicate of the Schedule when passed and signed shall be returned to the Clerk of the National Assembly who shall cause a copy to be published in the Federal Gazette; and the production of a copy of the Federal Gazette containing the Schedule as published shall be conclusive evidence for all purposes.
4. Classification and numbering of Acts
(1) The Clerk of the National Assembly shall in each year distinguish between Acts having application throughout the Federation and Acts having application only within the Federal Territory by assigning to them numbers consecutive in each series beginning in each year with the number one, and shall insert the date of commencement or, if the date of commencement is deferred, a reference to the section.
(2) The numbers shall be assigned by the Clerk of the National Assembly forthwith upon the return to him of the duplicate Schedule as approved, and where necessary in any year the numbers already assigned in printed copies of Acts may be altered under the authority of this subsection on certificate by the Clerk of the National Assembly, and if altered, a notice thereof shall be published in the Federal Gazette.
5. Printing of Acts
(1) Every Act when numbered shall immediately be set up in fair and legible type by the Government Printer and have endorsed on the back that it is published by authority; and an impression in triplicate from the type set up shall be struck off by the Government Printer on vellum or on paper of an enduring quality.
(2) The Clerk of the National Assembly shall retain one copy for his records and deliver one copy to the President and the other copy to the Chief Justice of Nigeria to be enrolled in the Supreme Court.
(3) All other copies of the Act shall in the first instance be impressions from the same form.
6. Evidence of Acts
Every Act which purports to be published by authority and bears a number and reference to a year and a date of commencement or reference to a section shall be received in all courts and by all persons as sufficient evidence that it has been assented to in the President’s name.
