Barring any unforeseen
circumstances, the House of Representatives is expected to commence the
consideration of the report of its committee on the review of the 1999
constitution this week. PHILIP NYAM takes a look at the major highlights
of the report
The report of the 53-member House of
Representatives committee on the review of the 1999 constitution was
laid before the plenary last week Thursday in the full glare of a live
television broadcast that was watched by millions of Nigerians. While
presenting the report of the committee, its Chairman and deputy Speaker,
Hon Emeka Ihedioha, said the committee engaged the services of experts
on constitutional and legal matters as well as civil society
organisations across the six geopolitical zones. It was the team of
experts that carefully analysed the over 200 memoranda from which they
sifted the most pressing demands by Nigerians.
The key issues were then formulated into 43
item template of issues, which the committee presented before Nigerians
during the People’s Public Sessions (PPS) on the review of the
constitution that held simultaneously in all the 360 federal
constituencies on November 10, 2012. Although the House had rejected
calls by groups like the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to call for
referendum, the PPS was similar to a national referendum, which
according to Ihedioha “approximated the often cited demand for a
sovereign national conference by a vocal section of the Nigerian elite”.
It was therefore, the 43 items that
Nigerians voted for and at the end of the PPS which transformed into the
report that was presented. Of course, it also received 25 bills that
were referred from the House.
In accepting the report, Speaker Aminu
Waziri Tambuwal promised that the House would commence work on it before
embarking on its annual recess due later this month. The House actually
dwelled on the hitherto ‘no go areas’ and made bold recommendations,
thereby replicating the views of Nigerians at the PPS. Some of the
considered areas that the lawmakers are expected to vote on include but
not limited to the following.
Immunity
The committee recommended for the removal
of immunity for the President, vice President, governors and deputy
governors. This has been a contentious issue in constitution amendment
since the return of democracy in 1999. In the last amendment, the issue
came up but the status quo ante was allowed to be. But this time,
majority of Nigerians that participated in the PPS’s voted massively
against immunity for any elected official.
Going by development within the polity, the
presidency and governors are likely to move against the passage of the
removal of immunity and ensure the ‘nay’ vote against its
recommendation. Looking at the character of the 7th House, the issue of
immunity is as good as being closed this time around except for the
Senate that is likely to look at the recommendation with a different
approach.
LG autonomy
The committee in line with the wishes of
the people, captured autonomy for local government autonomy and
therefore recommended the scrapping of the controversial joint state and
local government accounts as well as abrogated the State Independent
Electoral Commission (SIEC’s) and instead empowered the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct election into local
government councils.
“The reforms proposed by the committee
prescribed the mode of election of local government officials, their
functions, tenure, qualifications for elections, and other related
matters. Under the proposed amendment, elections into local government
councils will be managed by the national election management body, the
INEC”.
Similarly, the committee recommended the
establishment of an Independent Electoral Offences Commission to handle
electoral offences. On the joint state and local government account, the
committee submitted that “it decided to empower each local government
to maintain its own special account to be called ‘Local Government
Allocation Account’ into which shall be paid directly allocations made
to the local government by the federal government from the federation
account and from the government of the state’.
Presidential assent
The Review committee equally touched on the
contentious issue of presidential assent to the constitution. In the
last amendment, the President assented. But the committee amended
Section 9, which empowers the President to assent to the amended
constitution before it becomes law. Hence, the committee concluded that
the rigorous provisions for the alteration of the constitution by
members of the National Assembly and the
participation of the 36 state Houses of
Assembly represented such adequate participation of Nigerians and that
assent of the President negated the principle contained therein.”
Accountant General of the Federal Government
The committee also included a new section
in the constitution creating a new office of the Accountant General of
the Federation and Accountant General of the Federal Government to
ensure that persons are appointed into these two separate offices for
professional management of resources. Similarly; the committee made
amendments to insulate an independent office of the Attorney General of
the federation from partisanship and to be managed by a professional
lawyer. This provision is also applicable at the state level.
First line charge
In the same vein, the committee also put
the offices of Attorney General of the Federation, the Accountant
General of the Federation and the Auditor General of the Federation on
first line charge of the consolidated revenue fund of the federation.
The committee in its wisdom reasoned that the policy would entrench the
independence of the offices as well as insulate them from political
control.
Budget
This is one of the areas where the National
Assembly and the executive arm of government are always are
loggerheads. The scenario is presently playing itself out over the
amendment of the 2013 Appropriation Act. Hence the committee recommended
that “to ensure timely passage of the national budget, and discipline
in expenditure, budgets should be submitted by the executive for
approval not later than 90 days before the expiration of the fiscal
year”.
Police
Perhaps due to the often criticised police
brutality and infringement on people’s fundamental rights, the committee
decided that to amend the nomenclature of the Nigeria Police Force to
the ‘Nigeria Police’ with the expectation that the change in name would
bring about the desired change.
Creation of states
Like the Senate, the House review committee
did not recommend any of the 35 demands for creation of states saying;
“None of the requests submitted by the agitators complied with the
procedure for creation of states as outlined in section 8 of the
constitution. Accordingly, the committee was unable to treat any of
these requests.” However, recognizing that the process of creation of
states was ambiguous, the committee simplified it to make it less
cumbersome.
Traditional rulers
If the recommendation of the committee on
traditional rulers scales through, they may now have more to do as
constitutional roles have now been lined up for them.
“The committee in response to the results
of the People’s Public Sessions created a role for traditional rulers at
the federal and state levels thereby providing representation for
traditional rulers in the National Council of States and the creation of
State Council of Chiefs at the state level”
Independent candidature
The review committee also recommended the
need for independent candidacy in elections in Nigeria adding however,
such an independent candidate will be subjected to conditions stipulated
under the Electoral Act.
Conclusion
As good as the recommendations appear to
be, their inclusion into the constitution would be predicated on the
outcome of the voting by members and most importantly, the concurrence
passage by the Senate and the approval by the State Houses of Assembly
where the governors play gods.
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