Those agitating for a brand new Constitution in Nigeria may have to perish the thought as the National Assembly lacks the powers to do so. Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege has said.
Speaking when he hosted members
of Alliance of Nigerian Patriots in Abuja, Omo-Agege who chairs the Senate
Adhoc Committee on Constitutional Review, stressed that the National Assembly
has no powers to replace the current Constitution but can only amend same.
The delegation was led by
Ambassador Umunna Orjiako.
Citing advanced democracies like
the United States of America where Nigeria’s presidential system of government
is fashioned after as well as Sections 8 and 9 of the 1999 Constitution (as
amended), the lawmaker said what is obtainable is piecemeal alteration of the
Constitution.
He, therefore, urged those
calling for a brand new Constitution to channel their energy towards
participating actively in the ongoing amendment of the Constitution by the ninth
Assembly.
He said: “One of the issues you
raised is the replacement of the 1999 Constitution. I am not so sure that we as
a Parliament have the power to replace the Constitution. We can only make
amendments. And it is explicit in Sections 8 and 9 of the Constitution on how
we can do that and the requisite number of votes required.
“I say that because there are
some top attorneys in this country, who for some reasons, keep saying that we
don’t even need any of this, that we should just bring a new Constitution. We
can’t do that. What we are mandated to do by law is to look at those provisions
and bring them up-to-date with global best practices, especially to the extent
that it tallies with the views of the majority of Nigerians. So we are not in a
position to replace this Constitution but we can only amend.
“But, like I said, most of the
issues you have raised here, like zones replacing states, that’s another
euphemism for going back to the regions. We will look into that if that is what
majority of our people want.
“You talked about devolution of
powers. The preponderance of views we have received so far is that those 68
items are very wide and need to shed some weight and move them to the
Concurrent Legislative List”.
He also expressed his opinion on
the call by some persons for the scrapping of the upper legislative chamber.
According to him, the country
cannot practise unicameral legislature considering its large population.
“One of the issues raised by
#EndSARS Protesters was that they should abolish the Senate and merge us with
the House of Representatives. We are not in a position to do that. Mr.
President is not even in a position to do that as well. Because they believe
that he can just by fiat say ‘Senate bye bye. it will now be a National Assembly
made up of only the House of Representatives’.
“But, as I said at a different
forum, the President does not have such powers and I am not so sure that even
we can legislate out the National Assembly,” he said.
He continued: “There are people
who believe that yes, we had the 2014 confab report that has been ‘transmitted’
to the National Assembly and there is the El-Rufai Report on Restructuring,
2018, that has been transmitted to the National Assembly and that we should
just take them to Mr President for his assent and we have the Constitution
amended.
“But that is not how things are
done here. We are a country governed by laws and the grand norm is the
Constitution. And the Constitution itself has spelt out what we can do and how
we can do it”.
Concluding, he tasked the group
to reach out to other stakeholders across the country.
Earlier, Ambassador Orjiakor
called for the reconfiguration of the present 36 states structure into six
zones as federating units, drastic cut in the Exclusive Legislative List and
expansion of the Concurrent Legislative List, reform of the National Assembly
to a hybrid Presidential and Westminster systems, abolition of security votes
to be replaced by regular security budget allocations and electoral reforms to
ensure a truly independent INEC.
He also called for limited
immunity for entitled public officers in the Executive branch of government,
provision for independent candidacy in all elections, creating a consensual
balance between meritocracy and federal character among others.
Legislators who joined the Deputy
President of the Senate to receive the guests include Senate Minority Leader,
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and Deputy Minority Whip, Senator Saabi Yau.
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