President Bola Tinubu has assured that he will not assent to the Central Gaming Bill recently passed by the National Assembly, emphasizing his commitment to upholding the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He made this declaration during the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja.
The Central Gaming Bill, passed on December 2, 2025, aims to grant the federal government legal powers to regulate lottery and gaming activities across Nigeria’s states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
However, the bill has faced strong opposition, notably from the Attorney-General of Lagos State, who, through the law firm of Wole Olanipekun, SAN, formally warned the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, against signing the bill into law.
This opposition is grounded in a Supreme Court judgment delivered on November 22, 2024, which nullified the National Lottery Act on the basis that the National Assembly lacked constitutional authority to legislate on lotteries and gaming. The court ruled that these matters fall within the residual legislative powers of the state Houses of Assembly, not the federal legislature.
In his remarks at the APC NEC meeting, President Tinubu stressed that as a “constitutional democrat,” he recognizes the limits of his legislative powers and those of the National Assembly, even though both the executive and most legislators belong to the same political party, APC. He stated firmly:
“What I want you to forget is centralised lotto, go and read the constitution again. It is a residual matter. Residual Matters belong to the exclusive legislative matters of the states.”
He warned proponents of the bill to desist from further attempts to push it forward, declaring:
“Don’t thread near it, there’s no need for us to argue. I am a constitutional democrat. Lottery, lotto law, centralized lotto, gaming, and whatever it is… I read it and that it was coming to me, I won’t sign it.”
The letter from Lagos State’s Attorney-General highlighted that the Central Gaming Bill attempts to repeal the already nullified National Lottery Act, which is legally non-existent following the Supreme Court ruling.
It also criticized the bill’s provisions to regulate online gaming and lottery activities across state boundaries and to distribute revenues outside the constitutionally mandated Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The Supreme Court had “flatly rejected” arguments from the AGF and National Assembly that lottery and gaming qualify as economic activities that transcend state borders, reinforcing the position that such matters remain within the states’ legislative domain.
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