The two chambers of the National Assembly took a major step towards another round of constitutional amendment on Wednesday and Thursday last week when the Senate and the House of Representatives voted item by item on the proposed amendments. A total of 33 bills had been tabled by the National Assembly’s joint constitution review committee headed by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu. By now it has become routine that each National Assembly session must initiate amendments to the Constitution, something we have criticised in our editorials. Also disturbing is the rather large number of areas that were tabled for amendment, though somewhat of a reduction from more than 100 areas that were marked for amendment in 2006.
When the Senate voted on the 33 items on Wednesday, 97 out of the 108 Senators were present [there should be 109 senators but Anambra Central’s seat is vacant]. Twenty nine items were approved while four items failed to garner the two thirds majority [i.e. 73 votes] needed for passage. Among those rejected was devolution of powers to states and the citizenship/indigeneship bill which sought to guarantee a married woman’s right to choose either her area of indigene by birth or by marriage for the purposes of appointment or election. Also rejected was removal of Land Use Act from the Constitution.
Senate approved the much publicised “not too young to run” bill to reduce age qualification for the offices of President from 40 to 35, Governor from 35 to 30, 35 years stipulated for Senate was retained, House of Representatives was reduced from 30 to 25 while that of State Houses of Assembly was reduced from 30 to 25.
Senate state creation/boundary adjustment and 35% affirmative action for women. Among proposed amendments that Senate approved are immunity for members of the legislature; making it obligatory for the President to deliver a state of the nation address to a joint session of the National Assembly once a year; and one amendment that makes former Senate Presidents and Speakers of the House of Representatives to be members of the Council of State. It also voted to separate the office of Minister or Commissioner of Justice from that of Attorney-General of the Federation or of a state. Senate also approved alteration of section 84 of the Constitution to establish an Accountant-General of the Federal Government separate from Accountant-General of the Federation. It approved an amendment to make the Auditor-General of the Federation and of states financially independent by placing them on first line charges in the consolidated revenue funds.
Also approved by Senate were proposed amendments to fix 30 days time frame within which the President/Governor must forward to the Senate or State House of Assembly the names of nominees for confirmation as Ministers or Commissioners with their portfolios; provide for the appointment of a Minister from the FCT; allowing for independent candidacy in all elections and changing the name “Nigeria Police Force” to “Nigeria Police.” Similarly, Senate voted to delete the National Youth Service Corps Act, Public Complaints Commission Act and the National Security Agencies Act from the Constitution.
Other items approved by Senate include restricting a person, who was sworn-in as President or Governor to complete the term of the elected President/Governor from contesting for the same office for more than one term; making it mandatory for the President or Governor to lay the Appropriation Bill before the National Assembly or House of Assembly 90 days before end of a fiscal year; reducing the period within which the President or Governor may authorise withdrawal of monies from the consolidated revenue fund in the absence of an appropriation act from 6 months to 3 months; and funding State Houses of Assembly directly from the state’s Consolidated Revenue Fund. Senators also voted to abrogate the State Joint Local Government Accounts and empower each Local Government Council to maintain its own special account into which all allocations due to the Local Government Council shall be directly paid. They also deleted State Independent Electoral Commissions from the Constitution to enable the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conduct local government elections.
When the House of Representatives voted last Thursday, it rejected nine of the 33 proposed amendments, five more than Senate rejected. Among areas of difference were the fate of SIECs, ministerial slot for FCT and deletion of NYSC and other acts from the constitution. All in all, 24 amendment bills that were approved by two thirds majorities in both chambers will now be tabled before state houses of assembly. This is the next, crucial step in the process; an item must be approved by majorities in at least 24 state assemblies before it goes to the president for assent.
If past experience is anything to go by, any item that is not pleasing to state governors will be voted down at this level, particularly abolishing local government joint accounts. Some items approved by both national and state assemblies may also fail to get presidential consent, such as forcing chief executives to send portfolios along with ministerial nominations, separating the offices of attorney general and accountant general, or even the item that seeks to oust the president from the constitution amendment process. The president is also likely to withhold assent from what many see as the MPs’ self serving items such as granting them immunity from prosecution and making their former heads members of the Council of State.
In the end therefore, no more than a handful of the 33 items laboriously proposed by Ike Ekweremadu’s committee are likely to make it into the Constitution but the process would have consumed billions of naira and thousands of man hours. It was probably not worth it.
