The Adoke Factor

Contrary to strong denials that Jonathan assented in 2015 before he was made to change his mind, Adoke made a volt face in his recent book, “Burden of Service”, where he owned up to scuttling the Bill, described it as “self-serving” and promoting “legislative tyranny”.

“After the elections had been concluded, the NASS curiously passed into law the Constitution Fourth Alteration Bill 2015 and sent it to the President for assent. On getting wind that the President was about to transmit his assent to the NASS, I quickly placed a call to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Administration, Matt Aikhionbare…. I requested Aikhionbare not to transmit the instrument to the NASS.

“Some of the provisions, in my humble view, were purely self-serving. For one, the bill sought to take away the power of the President to assent to constitutional amendments. That meant that the legislature would, on its on, amend the Constitution and it would become operational without the consent of the President. Two, the bill sought to make Presiding Officers of the National Assembly life members of the National Council of State. Only former Presidents/ Heads of State and Chief Justices of Nigeria were permanent members. Three, the bill sought to put Presiding Officers of the National Assembly on life pensions irrespective of the duration of their service. Four, the bill also granted immunity to lawmakers in the same vein as the President, Vice President, Governors and Deputy Governors”, he clarified.

He said after getting Jonathan to write a letter rejecting the amendments, “NASS started grandstanding that they were going to override the President”.

“They demanded the original copy of the bill, which (already) had the President’s signature. But we ignored them. When I realized that they were about to engage in legislative rascality, I went to the Supreme Court to slow them down. The Supreme Court however asked all parties to go and reach a settlement. We did arrive at a settlement after they agreed to expunge most of the offending provisions”, he boasted.

The former AGF said that even though some of the presidency’s concerns were addressed, he knew ab initio he was not ready to advice the President to sign the amendments due to some political considerations.

“I reasoned that the amendments would be taken in bad taste as the President had just lost the election and would be vacating office in less than three weeks. If he had won, he would probably not have assented to a Bill that sought to, among other things, make ‘legislative tyrants’ of the National Assembly and weaken the powers of the President”, he wrote.

Meanwhile, many senior believe that what Adoke made Jonathan do was tantamount to repealing a law without recourse to the parliament.

“An important constitutional question arises– can a president having assented to a law, unilaterally withdraw his assent?” a senior lawyer and activist, Chidi Odinkalu, queried.