Last Tuesday, the National Assembly resumed plenary where it is expected that Committees on Constitution Review (CRC) would move speedily to conclude the exercise.
The report of the House of Representatives CRC, which was supposed to have been submitted last year was postponed amid claims of it being doctored. But the focus right now is on the Senate Constitution Review Committee which ab-initio set a July 2013 deadline for itself.
Chairman of the Senate CRC, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who is also the Deputy President of the Senate, affirmed the July deadline with a proviso; lawmakers want to conclude the exercise well ahead of the 2015 general elections.
The focus is on the Senate CRC because of its promises to Nigerians that new states would be created this time around. In the Sixth National Assembly, the same Ekweremadu-led CRC broke the jinx of many years when it successfully amended the 1999 Constitution.
Twice, it was done and so, naturally, Nigerians believed the same committee when it promised new states. Shortly after the inauguration of the committee, Ekweremadu unveiled a 16-point agenda with the novel idea of holding town hall meetings with Nigerians on the Constitution amendment. Ekweremadu then said the CRC has articulated critical national issues based on unfolding realities.
They are: devolution of powers; creation of more states; recognition of the six geo-political zones in the Constitution; role for traditional rulers; local government; extracting Land Use Act, NUSC Act, Code of Conduct from the Constitution; fiscal federalism and removal of ambiguities on amendment of provisions relating to amendment of the Constitution.
Others are: Immunity clause; Nigeria Police-Does Nigeria need state and local government Police? Judiciary; Single or multiple term for the executive; rotation of executive offices; gender and special group; mayoral status for the FCT and residency and indigene provisions.
Continuing, Ekweremadu disclosed that the Senate CRC would at all times be guided by whatever resolutions Nigerians want on the Constitution review. “We have no position on any issues except those taken by the Nigerian people through their inputs, whether through their memoranda, contributions at public hearings and their elected representatives at both the National and state Assemblies. “We bear no allegiance to any, except that which we owe to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
We have no interest to protect, except that of the generality of the Nigerian people and posterity. We will always be driven by the force of superior argument.” He reiterated that the July 2013 deadline for the completion of the amendment process will strictly be adhered to, “well ahead of the 2015 polls.” The last exercise in the Sixth National Assembly almost dovetailed into the 2011 elections.
This could probably account for why the National Assembly intends to conclude the amendment process on time; but the same exercise is now riddled with suspicion. For instance, there is the suspicion from other geo-political zones that the chairmanship of the CRC in both Houses are held by the South east.
Ekweremadu chairs the Senate CRC while Emeka Ihedioha chairs that of the House of Representatives. The conspiracy theorists further aver that because the South east holds the chairmanship in both Houses, that is why the agitation for creation of new states is vociferous. Daily Sun checks show that during meetings of the Senate CRC, members are not disposed at all to hearing talks of creation of new states.
A ranking member disclosed that “there is the suspicion that this exercise is only for the South east to get one or two states. It can’t happen. There are so many mitigating factors which would not allow creation of states to happen at this time.” But the Senate would seem to have set agitators for creation of new states into a spin. At the last count, there were demands for new states.
That was as at July 2012 when the Senate CRC held a retreat in Asaba, Delta State. As soon as the Senate CRC made its intent known to conduct a fresh amendment of the 1999 Constitution, the judiciary and other stakeholders quickly pitched in.
Former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and Chairman of the National Judicial Council, Justice Dahiru Musdapher presented 52 amendments to the 1999 Constitution to the National Assembly. Musdapher presented the proposed amendments to Senate President David Mark shortly before he left office last year. Top on its proposed list of amendments is that, the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court should be altered “by providing that appeals from the Court of Appeal on interlocutory decisions and other matters shall only be by leave of the Supreme Court.
“The composition of the National Judicial Council and the Federal Judicial Service Commission should also be altered to ensure greater balance. The process of removal of judicial officers has also been streamlined to ensure a greater degree of fairness.”
Other amendments as proposed by Musdapher were that the old section 295, regarding reference on questions of law should be deleted as “it has been identified as a means to stall the swiftness of the trial process.
“The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was also expanded to include an Advisory Jurisdiction on application by the President or a governor on questions of law or fact that are of such importance that is expedient to obtain an opinion of the Supreme Court on it.”
Not to be left out, the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) chipped in. In his remarks at the opening ceremony of the Asaba retreat, Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi stirred stakeholders with a declaration that Nigeria operates “an unwritten Constitution.”
Speaking extempore, he insisted that the immunity clause is no issue as there is no Constitution in the world that does not have the clause enshrined in it. Amaechi also challenged the Senate CRC to resolve, once and for all, knotty questions about Nigeria’s federating status, revenue formula presently skewed in favour of Abuja, how revenue is generated and shared and the Federal Government’s involvement in education and agriculture, among others. Even the Conference of Speakers of state Houses of Assembly pledged to cooperate with the National Assembly on this exercise, same as they did during the last exercise.
Speaker of Gombe State House of Assembly, Inuwa Garba, who is also the Chairman of Conference of Speakers, pledged that his colleagues would work with the National Assembly to enact a people-oriented Constitution. All this, however, pale into insignificance as the essence of this fresh amendment of the 1999 Constitution seems to be anchored on creation of more states and it is certain that the enthusiasm of agitators would be dashed.
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