AFTER a lull, members of the National Assembly have stepped up activities on the review of the 1999 Constitution.
The scope of their assignment has also been widened. Among other emerging issues, the National Assembly may define the time or number days for the President or state governors to transmit letters of their absence to the legislature. This is to avoid the national embarrassment and confusion, which the last President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s saga caused the country.
The development is attributed to the emergence of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as the Acting President, whose clearance by the legislature last week further emphasised the need to overhaul the document.
Some leaders of the legislature confirmed to The Guardian at the weekend in Abuja that the review of the 1999 Constitution had been fast-tracked following the submission of the reports of the technical panels to the Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Constitution.
In fact, the Senate Committee headed by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, will begin a two-day retreat between February 25 and February 27 to take a final look at the report of its own Technical Committee headed by Clement Nwankwo. Thereafter the panel will present its report to the Upper Legislative Chamber for consideration.
The slow pace of work on the constitution review was blamed on the Presidency, which was accused of not being interested in it, and causing a disagreement between the Senate and the House of Representatives. There was no concrete evidence as to the role of the Presidency except a remark by the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Kayode Adetokunbo that the Presidency was not keen on it.
Senate Leader Teslim Folarin confirmed the planned retreat, when he said in an interview that it would hold in Akwa Ibom State.
“We collated all the reports from the zones and we are going to Akwa Ibom in the next one or two weeks. I think you know about it. We are going to Akwa Ibom to go through this report, clause by clause and then, as we promised Nigerians, I know we will have an Act by end of March. I can assure you that it would be a very serious business,” he said.
It was learnt yesterday that the Dr. Kabir Mato’s Technical Committee submitted its report to the House last Wednesday while the Senate Committee got its own a week earlier.
But the committee members were silent on the content of the reports they received from the technical committee, even though the issue of an early election with a new Electoral Act is believed to be one of the main thrusts of the reports.
It was also learnt that both Houses might have agreed on some common grounds to be covered in the exercise. “The reports they each got were similar in many ways and I believe it will give added impetus to the exercise,” another source said.
Though the reports did not cover it, the contentious Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution will come up for review following the fresh mandate of the Senate to its committee two weeks ago.
In the heat of the debate to resolve the controversy generated by the absence of Yar’Adua, the Senate had in a resolution read by its President, David Mark, directed “the Senate Committee on Review of the 1999 Constitution, to propose an amendment to Section 145 of 1999 Constitution to resolve apparent flaws exposed by the current circumstance.”
Section 145 states that “whenever the President transmits to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such functions shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.”
The lawmakers are considering making it mandatory for the President to transmit a letter if he is going to be away for a specific number of days, or to make it automatic for the Vice President (or Deputy Governor in the case of a state) to take over the reins of government in such absence if it is not the usual yearly vacation.
There were also hints that the committees might look at Section 144(1) so that members of the Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF) could have the latitude to operate in future.
Section 144 (1) states that “the President or Vice President shall cease to hold office, if –
(a) by a resolution passed by two-thirds majority of all the members of the Executive Council of the Federation it is declared that the President or Vice President is incapable of discharging the functions of his office; and
(b) the declaration is verified, after such medical examination as may be necessary, by a medical panel established under subsection (4) of this section in its report to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
In an answer to a question last week, Folarin said: “What we are looking at is to say very simply: if a President or Governor – section 190 – I believe is outside the country for certain number of days, the Vice President or Deputy Governor steps in. It makes it very clear and automatic. The oath taken by the Vice President or Deputy Governor also covers that of the President. So, it makes it very easy. If you are out of the country for seven days or 14 days, your deputy will take charge. When you are back, then you assume duties again.”
The Guardian had reported exclusively on January 31, 2009 that confusion was trailing plans to move the country’s national elections back by four months.
The biggest hindrance to the plan to hold the elections in November this year, the report added, is a constitutional provision that the elections must only hold 60 days before an incumbent President (or governor) leaves office.
Section 132 states: (1) An election to the office of President shall be held on a date to be appointed by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
(2) An election to the said office shall be held on a date not earlier than 60 days and not later than 30 days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of that office.
The idea of elections holding six months before take-over to allow litigants exhaust the judicial options was first canvassed by the Justice Muhammadu Uwais-led Committee in its Electoral Reform Report to Yar’Adua.
Four weeks ago, Ekweremadu assured Nigerians and the international community that the report of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Review would be ready as promised by the end of this quarter.
He spoke when a team of experts requested by Yar’Adua to advise him on the electoral environment in Nigeria visited him. The team was led by Ghana’s Electoral Commission Chairman, Dr. Kofo Afari-Gyan and its work supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Department for International Development (DFID).