Lack of Quorum Foils Senate’s Veto on Constitution Amendment…

Senators hold executive session on bill today

Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja The Senate could not begin the process of overriding President Goodluck Jonathan's veto on constitution amendment bill yesterday because attendance in the chamber fell short of the required two-thirds majority on constitution amendment.

The National Assembly had gazetted the bill on Monday to mark the commencement of the process of overriding the president's veto on the amendment. Consequently, the Senate listed the bill for first reading yesterday but was stood down for lack of quorum.

Hence, at the end of the session, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over yesterday's sitting, announced that the Senate would hold an executive session on the amendment before today's sitting.

He appealed to his colleagues to make it a date with history by turning out in a large number for the meeting.

"I request all of us to make ourselves available tomorrow to discuss the amendments to the constitution and be able to respond appropriately to the development. Please let those who are not available know that we will have a closed session tomorrow to discuss this item so that we will be able to fashion out the way forward," Ekweremadu said.

The first item on yesterday's Order Paper was entitled: "Presentation of Bill" and underneath it, it was written, "Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Fourth Alteration) Act (SB 547) - First Reading."

THISDAY had exclusively reported on Sunday that the National Assembly would gazette the amendment bill vetoed by the president on Monday with the intention to present the bill for first reading, second reading and possibly third reading this week.

Both the National Assembly and the federal government have been at daggers drawn over the constitution amendment since April 13, when the president wrote both Senate President David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, announcing his decision to withdraw his assent from the constitution amendment.

In the letter, the president had accused the lawmakers of whittling down presidential powers and failing to strictly adhere to constitutional provisions on the amendment to Section 9 of the constitution by observing four-fifths majority support in each chamber before it could amend it.

The president had argued that the National Assembly only observed two-thirds majority support for the amendment instead of four-fifths stipulation in the constitution before amending the section. The amendment to the section strips the president of the power to sign an amendment bill before becoming effective.

Following the president's letter, the Senate on April 15, demanded the return of the bill to the National Assembly by the president. The demand was the fallout of an allegation that the president had earlier signed the bill before he was prevailed upon by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mohammed Adoke, to withdraw his assent.

Suspecting that the National Assembly might move to override the president's veto as a result of the demand, the federal government proceeded to the Supreme Court to stop the National Assembly from further carrying out any legislation on the amendment bill with the intention to render it handicapped.

Consequently, the Supreme Court eventually ruled on the suit on May 7, asking the National Assembly to maintain the status quo ante on the amendment until the final determination of the suit. The apex court also described the suit as incompetent, observing that it should have been between the president and the National Assembly and not the AGF and the National Assembly as the case had been.

The apex court also queried the federal government's counsel for not joining the state houses of assembly in the suit since they were also parts and parcel of the amendment process.

However, on May 6, 24 hours before the Supreme Court asked the National Assembly to halt the amendment process, the federal legislature commenced the process of overriding the president's veto, by submitting the amendment bill for a gazette. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives submitted copies of their amendment bills as passed for gazette.

Accordingly, the bills were gazetted on Monday. While the House bill was gazetted with the reference number HB/781, the Senate bill was gazetted as SB/548.

By their action, the National Assembly had decided to ignore Supreme Court's order following claims that each of the three organs of government performs distinct functions and one cannot stop the other from performing its constitutional duties.

A source disclosed that gazetting the bill had become imperative if the National Assembly must save the constitution review process from being a wasted effort notwithstanding the Supreme Court's status quo order till June 18.

The National Assembly had also argued that should the Supreme Court rule in its favour on June 18, it will be of no use since the bill would have lapsed with the current seventh assembly on June 6.

Any bill that is not signed into law before the expiration of a legislative tenure, the bill becomes invalid and can only be thrown into the dust bin of history.

The process of overriding a bill begins with the gazette. After the gazette, the bill will return to the chamber for another legislative process beginning with the first reading, second reading and later third reading.

If the bill makes it to the third reading, then it has successfully overridden the president's veto otherwise, the veto stays.

It was learnt yesterday that senators were divided over the amendment. Some were said to have agreed with the president that the amendment process was flawed and hence, the matter should be laid to rest, while others believe that the process was right and the amendment must stay.

Nevertheless, the outcome of today's executive session will determine the way forward for the bill.