Quite early in its life, the National Assembly has begun moves to further amend the 1999 Constitution with the inauguration of ad hoc committees in the two legislative chambers. The major task is the completion of the work of the Seventh National Assembly, stalled by the former president, Goodluck Jonathan’s refusal to assent to the bill containing the amendments.
The parliament and the executive arm had wasted funds organising zonal public hearings and national political conferences pursuant to the objective of producing a workable, durable constitution for Nigeria, but without significant results. The 2014 political conference, which produced many items for constitution amendment, cost about N7 billion to organise, just as the parliament concurrently spent billions of naira to go through the same ritual that came to naught.
In withholding his assent, Jonathan itemised 12 errors the lawmakers made, which included the usurpation of his executive powers; limiting expenditure in default of appropriation from six months to three; and imposition of the right to free basic education and primary and maternal care services on private institutions. But the most notorious blunder was non-compliance with the threshold specified in Section 9(3) of the Constitution on the mode of altering its provisions.
According to the section, for any constitution amendment to be considered successful, it shall receive “the votes of not less than four-fifths majority of all members of each House, and also approved by resolution of the Houses of Assembly of not less than two-thirds of all the States.” Incredibly, the parliament was blind to this requirement. This gaffe should be avoided by the Eighth National Assembly.
However, the Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, set the ball rolling once more when he inaugurated the House team. He said, “In your discussions and engagements, there should be no off-limits except the very basis of the Constitution, which is the indivisibility of Nigeria.” Such a holistic approach will tantamount to a wild goose chase. No country overhauls its constitution wholesale except in times of monumental crisis or threat to national survival.
In fact, such a broad approach was responsible in no small measure for the intrigues driven by sectional interests and selfishness of the lawmakers that over-shadowed previous endeavours. The rot in our system is gargantuan, fostered by decades of military dictatorship and misrule by civilians. Nigeria has failed woefully at democratic consolidation after 16 years of experiment. Abuses of governance are simply monumental. Consequently, the National Assembly should critically identify the most pressing national challenges and deal with them in such a manner that offers the country an opportunity to re-discover its glorious past.
One critical issue the lawmakers must face is the electoral logjam in the November 2015 governorship election in Kogi State. The candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Abubakar Audu, who was coasting home to victory, suddenly died before he could be declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission. This situation was not anticipated by the Constitution, especially Section 181 (1), which says, “If a person duly elected as Governor dies before taking and subscribing the Oath of Allegiance and oath of office,” the person elected with him as Deputy Governor shall be sworn in as Governor. Audu’s running mate, James Faleke, feels cheated with Yahaya Bello’s emergence as the governor. Amending this section to take care of an unforeseen circumstance such as this is now unavoidable.
Nigeria can no longer avoid the issue of state police, jettisoned since the collapse of the First Republic, to the mockery of Nigeria as a federation. Insecurity, exemplified in kidnapping and armed robbery, has reached a level never experienced in the country before. The urgency of the moment dictates that the present centralised policing system should be dismantled constitutionally for an efficient grassroots policing. Repeatedly, the states’ funding of police commands in their respective domains underlines this fact.
In November, Lagos State for instance, proved this in the N4.6 billion worth of vehicles and other equipment it donated to the police. According to a Cable News Network report, Nigeria is now responsible for 23 per cent of global kidnapping. This is an index of social disorder, which should be reversed.
More crucial matters are contained in the report of the 2014 political conference earlier forwarded to the Seventh parliament. Among them are: limiting ministerial appointments to 18 drawn from the six zones; tying the defection of an elected office holder to another party to loss of the seat; and unicameral legislature. An amendment of the constitution along these lines will obviously tackle waste in governance, pillaging of public treasury by public officials and considerably deepen our democracy.
A successful amendment by the Eighth Assembly will be the fourth alteration to the constitution. There are some Nigerians obsessed with a comprehensive overhaul of the document. We are afraid this will foster a national gridlock given our diversity, disagreements and mutual suspicion among the country’s ethnic formations. Only eight amendments have been made to Australia’s constitution since its adoption in 1900.
The United States, with its 227-year history, has had its constitution altered only 27 times. Its last amendment in 1992, which limited lawmakers’ power to fix their own salaries, clearly shows that there is no time limit in making it a perfect document. Nigeria has a lesson to learn here.
