The Deputy President of the
Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has briefed the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF,
on the ongoing constitution amendment exercise.
He, however, explained that
efforts were on to build consensus around some of the failed bills, especially
the bill on devolution of powers, with a view to revisiting it to unbundle and
make the Federal Government more efficient.
On the concerns that it would be
an aberration of federalism for State Houses of Assembly and the Local
Governments to draw revenues directly from the Federation Account, Ekweremadu
explained that amendments towards financial autonomy for both only seeks to
alter Section 162 of the Constitution to abrogate the State Joint Local
Government Accounts and create the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the State from
which all allocations due to the Local Government Councils and the State
Assemblies shall be directly paid from the Federation Account.
He said the proposed amendments
would guarantee the democratic existence, funding, and tenure of local
government councils.
He said that financial autonomy
for Local Governments would not return primary education to the era of unpaid
salaries. He explained that although education remained the constitutional
responsibilities of the Local Governments, provisions have been made to deduct
from the source the monthly financial obligations of the Local Governments to
primary education for remission into the account of state agencies overseeing
basic education.
The lawmaker further maintained
that altering Section 134 and 179of the Constitution would avail the
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, sufficient time for INEC to
conduct bye-elections; and section 225 to empower it to de-register political
parties was not total.
“INEC’s power to deregister
parties will apply strictly to non-fulfillment of certain conditions such as
breach of registration requirements and failure to secure/win either a
Presidential, Governorship, Local Government chairmanship or a seat in the
National or State Assembly or a Councillorship seat.
“Bill No. 10, seeks to alter
sections 58, 59 and 100 only seeks to resolve the usual situation where the
President or Governor neglects to signify his/her assent to or veto of a bill
from the legislature.
“So, the President or Governor
will now have 30 days to signify his/her assent/veto rather than keep everyone
in endless suspense, while passed bills gather dust in the shelf. In the United
States, the Constitution provides for only two weeks. So, the intent is to
enable timely passage of laws for good governance”.
On Bill No. 4, which seeks to set
a timeframe of 30 days for the President and Governors to nominate the
Ministers and Commissioners along with their proposed respective portfolios, he
maintained that the 1999 Constitution did not envisage a situation where some
governments would run without cabinet for months or years.
“It will also serve the nation
better if members of the National Assembly can screen nominees based on
specific portfolios. That way, we are able to ascertain their suitability as we
see in developed democracies like the United States”, he added.
Ekweremadu allayed the fears that
independent candidacy could make the electoral process cumbersome, noting that
INEC would, by law, set the modalities for qualification as an independent
candidate.
Ekweremadu said that Bill No. 16
seeks to restrict a person who was sworn-in as President or Governor to only
completing the term of the elected President or Governor from contesting for
the same office for more than one term.
On Bill No. 21, he explained that
the successful amendment of the Constitution in 2010, which set the timeframe
for the determination of election petitions, had greatly improved the nation’s
electoral system, hence the need to replicate it in the area of pre-election disputes.
Meanwhile, he said the National
Assembly had not given up to the proposed amendments of Second Schedule, Part I
& II to move certain items, such as railway and power, to the Concurrent
Legislative List to give more legislative powers to States.
“Besides making governance
difficult, concentration of so much power at the centre fuels the struggle for
federal power. We believe that devolving some power to the States will improve
good governance and also make the centre less attractive”, Ekweremadu stressed.
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