As N’Assembly Moves to Amend 1999 Constitution Again...
The National Assembly last week commenced another move to further alter the nation’s 1999 constitution as the Red Chamber constituted a 45-member committee to carry out the task. Sunday Aborisade x-rays the enormous task ahead of the panel due for inauguration today in view of the socio-economic crisis currently facing the country.
Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, shortly before the close of plenary last Wednesday, announced the composition of a 45-member Constitution Amendment Commitee ti be chaired by Deputy Senate President, Senator Jibrin Barau, while the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele was named Vice chairman.
The panel also include, all the principal officers, all the four female senators, one senator from each state of the federation and six others from each of the geopolitical zone.
Apart from Barau and Bamidele, other members of the committee are: Deputy Senate Leader, Oyelola Ashiru; Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume; Deputy Whip, Nwebonyi Onyeka; Minority Leader, Abba Moro; Minority Whip, Osita Ngwu; Deputy Minority Leader, Oyewunmi Olalere, and the Minority Whip, Sani Hangar.
Others are Senators Enyinnaya Abaribe, Binus Dauda Yaroe, Bassey Etim Akpan, Ifeanyi Ubah, Abdul Ningi, Seriake Dickson, Agom Jarigbe, Ned Nwoko, Adams Oshiomhole, Danjuma Goje, Osita Izunaso, Abdulhamid Ahmed and Khalid Mustapha.
They also included Senators Sani Rufai, Mutari Dandutse, Yahaya Abdullahi, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, Adebule Oluranti, Godiya Akwashiki, Sani Musa and Solomon Adeola.
Also on the list are, Adeniyi Ayodele, Abdulfatai Buhari, Simon Lalong, Aliyu Wamako, Shuaibu Lau, Ahmed Lawan, Sahabi Alhaji Ya’u, Ireti Kingigbe, and Ipalibo Banigo.
The Senators who would represent their geopolitical zones are, Adamu Aliero (North-West); Orji Uzor Kalu (South-East) Francis Fadahunsi (South-West); Bomai Mohammed (North-West); Barinada Mpigi (South-South) and Umar Sadiq Sulaiman (North-Central).
The Senate President explained that the 1999 constitution needed a review because it contains many issues that should be put right.
He also noted that the introduction of Artificial Intelligence was a major factor that should be considered in the proposed amendment to the constitution.
Akpabio said, “There is a need for us to touch some aspects of the constitution to bring them in line with current relatives particularly with the era of artificial intelligence and some of the things we have observed that needed to be put right.”
The Senate President also directed that all Speakers of the state Houses of Assembly should be invited to the National Assembly for interaction as part of the constitution amendment process.
He said, “The Deputy Senate President, you should also invite speakers of all state houses of assemblies for interaction with the Senate President before we go into the major issues of presenting the different memos.”
Akpabio explained that lawmakers who constitute the constitution amendenent committee were selected from all states and geo-political zones and noted that all committee members represent all the political parties in the Senate.
His words: “All political parties, all senatorial districts and all the geopolitical zones have been taken care of.
“We are taking one senator per state because we are talking about constitution amendment. One Senator per state and then we are also taking one senator representing each geo-political zone.
“So, in case you noticed two senators from one state, that would mean that one of them represents the zone, while there is one senator from that zone representing that state.”
The Senate President noted that the constitution amendment committee would be inaugurated on Tuesday and that they would commence the review process immediately.
Akpabio said, “The committee will be inaugurated on Tuesday, so that they can start functioning immediately.
“All the motions and resolutions pertaining to constitution amendment that have been brought to the Senate since last year will now be channeled straight to that committee”
Speaking on the development in an interview with THISDAY in Abuja at the weekend, Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, expressed the confidence that the constitution amendment exercise being proposed by the 10th National Assembly will solve a lot of social, political and economic challenges currently confronting the country.
He said since the state governors and the President had agreed that there was the need to decentralise the country’s security architecture, both chambers of the federal parliament would receive memoranda and bills on it.
Adaramodu also said the proposed review of the nation’s laws would also take care of the type of government that Nigeria currently desire since there are discussions at the moment in various cycles about the type of government that would reduce the cost of governance.
He said: “The parliament is to make laws and the laws that the parliament will make, will not be generated outside of the interest and aspirations of Nigerians.
“So if the Federal Government or the state governors or whoever wants state police, so be it.
“When we inaugurate the constitution amendment committee, the panel members will go out there and meet up with all the critical stakeholders in Nigeria within various sectors.
“They will discuss with the traditional rulers and so on and so forth. So when they meet and then we aggregate, we will know that this is what Nigerians want, that is the law that we are going to make what will represent the people and the law must be people’s law.
“Once it is going to be the people’s law, whatever kind of police that we want in Nigeria that Nigerians want, that is what the National Assembly will give to them.
He nevertheless said the success of the exercise lies squarely on the state houses of Assembly because at least two-thirds of them must vote in favour of the amendments before the National Assembly could forward them to President Bola Tinubu for assent.
His words: “Another thing is that we want to ensure that because when we talk about the constitutional amendment or even making of it, we need 24 states of the federation to concur with us.
“So it does not end with the National Assembly, it starts from us, goes to the states and comes back to the National Assembly for further legislative process before it goes to the Presidency for assent. “It is not a one-way lawmaking process So as Nigerians are desirous through their governors and the presidency that Nigeria policing must be rejigged, then we have to find something to do about it so that we can ensure that there is peace in our land”.
Adaramodu added that the body language of Nigerians would determine the type of government they desire, whether parliamentary system or to continue with the presidential system of government.
He said, “We will look at the body language of Nigerians because we represent them, before we take action on the Parliamentary system of government.
“Federal lawmakers either from the Senate or in the House of Representatives will bring motions and bills in that regard and they would be subjected to the crucibles of legislation that would bring about peace and prosperity to Nigerians.
“So, what we are doing is normal and that is the duty of a legislator or legislators to come up with what they think can enhance the polity by effectively representing their constituents too.
“Our constituents will bring before the National Assembly either Reps or Senate motions or bills which will go through the crucibles of legislative scrutiny.”
Efforts to amend the 1999 constitution were truncated during the administrations of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former President Goodluck Jonathan but it succeeded during the administrations of the late president Umaru Musa Yar’adua and former president Muhammadu Buhari.
Constitution reviews under the Buhari administration were largely successful. A total of 21 alterations were carried out.
In 2018 for instance, five major reviews of the law took place. Also on March 17, 2023 a total of 16 new alterations were carried out.
Since 1999, the Nigerian constitution had been altered five times. Twice in 2010 under Yar’Adua administration and three times under Buhari who is from the same state as late Yar’adua.
Nigerians are therefore, looking at how the President Tinubu’s administration would handle the proposed amendment to the Nigerian constitution in view of the fact that two former presidents from the South, did not succeed when they attempted to do so.
Both Buhari and Yar’adua who successfully altered the nation’s constitution are Northern Muslims from the same state. The duo of Obasanjo and Jonathan are Christians from the South.
It will be recalled that the constitutional review exercise under Obasanjo was derailed in May 2006 over his purported third term ambition.
Jonathan on the other hand, vetoed the constitutional alteration bills in 2015 and advanced reasons for doing so in a seven-page letter read on the floor of the Senate on April 15, 2015.
He said he could not sign the new proposals into law due to irregularities and an attempt by the lawmakers to violate the doctrine of Separation of Powers.
In his alterations of the constitution which was signed into law in 2010, Yar’Adua made the Independent National Electoral Commission to be on First Line Charge on Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federation.
The gesture was similarly extended to the National Assembly and federal Judiciary.
The age qualification of INEC chairman was reduced from 50 to 40 years and those of National Commissioners and Resident Electoral Commissioners were reduced from 40 to 35 years.
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The parliament is to make laws and the laws that the parliament will make, will not be generated outside of the interest and aspirations of Nigerians. So if the Federal Government or the state governors or whoever wants state police, so be it. When we inaugurate the constitution amendment committee, the panel members will go out there and meet up with all the critical stakeholders in Nigeria within various sectors. They will discuss with the traditional rulers and so on and so forth. So when they meet and then we aggregate, we will know that this is what Nigerians want, that is the law that we are going to make what will represent the people and the law must be people’s law.