•27 state assemblies fail to pass harmonised version •State legislature can’t alter bill, says Ekweremadu
Thisday 's Imam Imam in Lagos, Kunle Akogun in Abuja and additional reports from Our Correspondents, 07.06.2010
1999 Constitution
The amendments to the 1999 Constitution proposed and passed by the two houses of the National Assembly may have run into a hitch.
By last night, Kogi is the only state that has adopted the entire harmonized version of the amendments as presented to them by the National Assembly.
The Constitution Amend-ments Bill 2010 detailing the harmonized version of the bill passed by the Senate and House of Representatives were handed over to the states on June 5, 2010 by Senate President David Mark.
Two-third of the state houses of assembly (24 assemblies) need to concur with the Senate and House on the amendments before they can become law.
But majority of the state legislature have concluded work on the document, rejecting some sections of the bill. A total of 27 states passed the document with reservations on some sections of the draft amendments. Nine states are yet to conclude work on the bill.
The states where the amendment bill is still being debated are Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, Kano, Kwara, Bauchi, Anambra and Enugu.
Most of the state houses of assembly conducted their own public hearing on the bill before taking their decisions on the amendments.
THISDAY checks revealed that the sections mostly rejected by the states included Section 65, which seeks to raise the bar of educational qualification for political office holders from school certificate to diploma.
Another provision widely rejected is Section 177, which provides for Independent candidates in future elections and Sections 108 and 109, approving cross-carpeting by federal and state legislators to the parties of their choice without any sanction.
Even though the state assemblies will emerge beneficiaries of Section 121 of the draft amendments, many of them were unanimous in rejecting the proposal for first-line charge in the consolidated revenue fund for the state and federal legislature.
Curiously enough, many of them approved same proposal for the judiciary and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Other areas largely rejected include allowing candidates indicted by administrative panel of inquiry to contest election and the age requirements into elective offices in the country.
However, many of the assemblies approved proposals, which empower the vice-president and deputy governors to automatically assume duty in acting capacity once the president and governors are out of the country beyond 21 days without transmitting letters to the legislature.
They also approved, among others, financial autonomy for the Independent National Elec-toral Commission (INEC) and first line funding for the judiciary.
The harmonized constitution in Section 145 contains provisions mandating the President to transmit to the National Assembly a letter empowering the vice-president to act as president, whenever he is proceeding on vacation or unable to discharge his duties.
Also, Section 190 provides for state governors to inform their state houses of assembly that the deputy governor shall perform the duties of a governor as in acting capacity whenever the governor is on leave or unable to discharge his official functions.
Fifty sections of the constitution amended by the Senate and House of Representatives were passed on to the state assemblies.
The harmonized bill provides for independent candidature, financial autonomy for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), National Assembly and the Judiciary.
Among other things, the bill provides a minimum of Diploma certificate as academic qualification by candidates for election, removes indictment by a judicial or administrative panel of inquiry as a basis for disqualification of candidates and also makes transmission of letter to the National Assembly by a President going on leave or medical vacation mandatory.
The bill has also endorsed cross carpeting by deleting the provisions of Section 68 (1) (g) that forbids the action in the principal Act.
By the provisions of Section 76 (2) on time of election to the National Assembly in the harmonized bill, elections are now to hold not earlier than 150 days and not later than 120 days before the date on which the House (National Assembly and State Assembly as in Section 132-mutatis mutandis) stands dissolved, or where the election to fill a vacancy occurring more than 90 days before such date, not later than 30 days after the vacancy occurred. The principal Act provides for 90 and 30 days respectively.
Also, the bill provides in Section 84 (8) on Remuneration, etc of the President and certain other officers, thus: “The recurrent expenditure of the Independent National Electoral Commission in addition to Salaries and allowances of the Chairman and Members of the Commission shall be a charge upon the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.”
Section 135 on Tenure of Office of President as provided in the principal Act was retained in the harmonized bill as approved by the Senate.
A new Section 228 on internal democracy in parties provides in subsection (a): “For guidelines and rules to ensure internal democracy within political parties, including making laws for the conduct of party primaries, party congresses and party conventions.
Presenting the amendments to the Chairman of Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly, Hon. Istifanus Gbana last Tuesday, the Senate President had called on the state legislatures to expeditiously pass the amendments, saying the lawmakers were building a foundation for democracy.
“What we are doing here today is what the American Congress and State Legislatures have ably done for the people of America for over 200 years now. As we progress as a nation, we will be called upon from time to time to embark on this kind of exercise in the overall interest of our people,” Mark had said.
Receiving the document, Gbana had commended the National Assembly for what he called “an unprecedented feat.”
He pledged the commitment of the state Houses of Assembly to be “through and democratic while performing our constitutional responsibilities on this crucial matter.”
Meanwhile, the Deputy Senate President and Chairman Senate Ad-hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has clarified insinuations now making the rounds that most of the state legislatures have rejected the constitution amendment bill handed over to them for their input last month by the National Assembly.
Speaking to THISDAY through his Special Adviser, Media, Mr. Paul Odenyi, Ekweremadu said: "The law does not allow the state legislatures to change anything from the document as handed over to them by the National Assembly either by way of subtraction or addition.
"What you read in the newspapers are general observations by those state Houses of Assemblies."
He added: "we are waiting for their formal resolutions, which will come in form of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if about 20 of them have already passed their resolutions.”
Ekweremadu said further: "In any case, some of the reported observations by some state assemblies are even beyond the scope of the electoral reform, which the amended portions of the constitution substantially deal with."
For instance, he said some of them are raising issues such as state creation, boundary adjustments, etc.
He therefore advised Nigerians to exercise patience and wait for the formal resolutions of the various state legislatures.
Until we get a formal resolution from the state legislatures, which hopefully should be presented jointly to the National Assembly next week, we cannot be talking of how many states have okayed the amendment bill and how many have rejected it," he said.
Echoing Ekweremmadu’s views, Chairman, Senate Committee on Information and Media, Senator Ayogu Eze, said Nigerians should await the submission of the final document to the National Assembly before reaching any conclusion.
“We are awaiting the final decision by the state legislatures before we can react. There is a procedure for handling such matters in the national Assembly,” he added.
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