Constitution amendments suffer setback

Efforts of the Senate and House of Representatives to restructure Nigeria by ammending the 1999 Constitution (as amended) appears to have suffered a setback as the 36 state governors and Speakers of the Houses of Assembly rejected the constitution amendments, citing non-inclusion of state police as reason.

Consequently, they are sending the documents containing the amendments back to the National Assembly without concurrence.

In essence, the amendments must include state police before they can concur.

State police has been a recurring issue in the polity for quite a while amid escalating insecurity in the country which has been blamed on the lack of capacity by the federal police to stem the tide.

It has been part of the overall demand by many ethnic groups for the restructuring of Nigeria to devolve some of the powers currently enjoyed by the Federal Government to states and local governments.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that the governors and Speakers of the state Assemblies took their decision on the constitution amendments about three weeks ago.

The outgoing governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), confirmed the development in an interview.

Restating his support for Nigeria’s restructuring, Fayemi said: “I have also seen the proposals on constitutional reforms; in my capacity as Chairman of the Governors’ Forum, I’ve seen the latest decisions that have been transmitted to states.

“You know they (National Assembly) had to send it to states for concurrence after they had done their bit and for states to concur; the 36 governors and the 36 Speakers have met to agree on what’s going back to the National Assembly.

“So, we completed that exercise about three weeks ago and what has delayed it is that we then insisted, still on this restructuring, that one issue NASS did not put in their conclusions that we want you to go back and put state policing, because we got all governors, for the first time to be on the same page on state policing and these are personalities who used to be very reluctant to support state policing.

“So, these things are on, not as fast as we would like them to happen, but we cannot be averse to restructuring, definitely me I’ve written, and spoken publicly, and I’m on record on restructuring, there’s no going back on that”.

He went on: “Restructuring is an idea whose time has come. It would become a major issue in the 2023 electoral campaign. It is already becoming that. I’ve seen at least candidate Atiku (Abubakar) loudly talking about restructuring.

“I’ve also seen candidate Peter Obi said that he wants to restructure, he wants to dialogue with all the agitators and, of course, as you rightly said, it’s always been on our agenda.

“But, one thing you can say, maybe by way of defense for our party – but the party spokesman will speak to that not me – is that everything that we said we would do, we have done”.

The governor explained that the El-Rufai Committee, set up by the All Progressives Congress (APC) after it assumed office at the federal level in 2015, in its recommendations, put restructuring in black and white, “but that task is not an executive task, it’s a legislative task”.

Fayemi added: “The Constitution of Nigeria only empowers the National Assembly to change the Constitution, we’ve also given them that information, we’ve submitted the El-Rufai Report to them, and we’ve even engaged the Principal Officers.

“I was there when the El-Rufai Committee and the party submitted it to them and said, ‘Look, we want you to work on this.”’

Financial restructuring

Speaking on financial restructuring, the governor explained that the position of the El-Rufai Committee mirrors that of the NGF because the NGF position on revenue allocation formula is that it is lopsided in favour of the Federal Government.

His words: “You cannot give me responsibilities and not give me resources to match the responsibilities. “That would amount to the tyranny of unfunded mandate and we’ve argued that there has to be a rearrangement of that revenue allocation formula in favour of states and the local government.

“The NGF proposed that the Federal Government retains a lower share and states and local governments have a higher share.

“Primary healthcare is a state responsibility; basic education is a state responsibility. But if you want to play a role in it, so they say they have something called UBEC or they have (Primary Health Care Development Agency) to still spend money and coordinate what states are doing. Regulation, yes, but not implementation and operation in those critical segments of the lives of our citizens. So, our position has always been clear on that”.

44 bills

Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Ojo Olatunde Amos, had, on March 29, transmitted 44 Constitution Review Bills to Clerks of State Houses of Assembly in the 36 states for further consideration and passage as required by law.

For any amendment to sail through, it has to have the backing of at least two-thirds of the 36 state assemblies and two-thirds of members of both chambers of the National Assembly.

The Senate had empanelled a 56-man ad hoc Committee chaired by Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege to kick-start the process. A similar committee headed by Deputy Speaker Ahmed Idris Wase was set up in the House of Representatives.

On March 1, the two chambers voted on recommendations of their respective committees and passed 44 out of the 68 bills listed for consideration. Twenty-four of the bills were rejected by both chambers.

The 1999 Constitution (as amended) provides in Section 9(2) that: “An Act of the National Assembly for the alteration of this Constitution, not being an Act to which Section 8 of this Constitution applies, shall not be passed in either House of the National Assembly unless the proposal is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of all the members of that House and approved by resolution of the Houses of Assembly of not less than two-thirds of all the states.”

Some of the amendment bills adopted by the NASS and forwarded to the states for endorsement are:

*To expand the Interpretation of Judicial Office to include Courts or Tribunals created by an Act of the National Assembly or a State House of Assembly.

*Allow for fair hearing in the process of recommendation of removal of judicial officers by the State Judicial Service Commission.

*To move airports from Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List.

*To move Fingerprints, Identification and Criminal Records from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List.

*To delete prisons in the Exclusive Legislative List and re-designate it as Correctional Services in the Concurrent Legislative List.

* To move Railway from the Exclusive Legislative List to Concurrent Legislative List.

* To allow states to generate, transmit and distribute electricity in areas covered by the national grid.

* Domestication of treaties.

*Timeline for presentation of Appropriation bill by president and governors.

*Timeline for president and governors to submit names of ministerial nominees and commissioners.

* To include Presiding Officers of the National Assembly in the membership of the National Security Council

* Establishment of State Security Council

* Legislative powers to summon presidents and governors

* To reduce the period which the President or governor may authorise withdrawal of monies from CRF

* To Replace the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation with the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Government

* To establish the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federal Government separate from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation

* Timeframe for the Conduct of Population Census

* To establish the Office of the Attorney–General of the Federation and of the State separate from the Office of the Minister of Justice or Commissioners for Justice of the state in order to make the Offices Attorneys–General Independent and Insulated from Partisanship.

* State of the Nation and State of the State Address by the President and Governor

* To include former heads of the National Assembly in the Council of State.

* Termination of tenure of elected officials after change of political party.

* Bill to enhance existing provisions on the formation of political parties.

* Independent candidacy.

(Vanguard)