Controversial new constitution bill resurfaces in Senate

The committee led by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu had on April 2 tabled the clause which was embedded in the constitutional amendment bill but was compelled to withdraw it after majority of his colleagues stoutly opposed it a day after.However, instead of voting on the remaining clauses in the bill, the leadership stepped down […]

The committee led by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu had on April 2 tabled the clause which was embedded in the constitutional amendment bill but was compelled to withdraw it after majority of his colleagues stoutly opposed it a day after.
However, instead of voting on the remaining clauses in the bill, the leadership stepped down further consideration to another legislative day. On Tuesday, Senator Ekweremadu who presided over the sitting had informed his colleagues to get ready to vote on the bill which required four-fifth of the 109 Senators to scale through.
After the bill was presented, Senator Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe) said his privilege as a Senator had been breached by the committee for refusing to circulate copies of the bill before the sitting.
“We cannot be caged and forced to vote on the bill which we did not see before now. Copies of the bill are supposed to have been circulated but I am seeing it for the first time now,” he said.
In presenting the bill, Senator Ekweremadu said during the last constitution amendment voting in July last year, the upper chamber mistakenly voted two-third (73) instead of 4/5 (87) as required by the constitution which informed the decision to re-introduce it for a fresh vote in order to correct the anomalies.
Daily Trust recalls that the controversial clause was not voted in exclusion during the last exercise almost one year ago that would have warranted its representation for a fresh vote.
Although the clause which deals with “procedure for drafting a new constitution” as tabled yesterday did not expressly mention the President as one of those that could initiate a new constitution, it however stated that any member of the National Assembly can do so through the joint constitution review committee.
The clause which is embedded in section 9 subsection (3G) of the bill states that, “The Joint Constitution Drafting Committee shall produce a draft constitution which shall be submitted to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
This, a ranking Senator said: “Is deliberately done to pave way for the introduction of the new constitution and they will say it came from us and not the President. That is why we are against it and we will kill it today.”
“Usually, if there is the need to correct any mistake done by the Senate in voting, according to our rules, a substantive motion will be presented seeking for the removal of the earlier wrong decision but they didn’t do that instead they are trying to re-introduce that clause through the backdoor,” another lawmaker who did not want to be mentioned said.
Speaking in opposition to the proposal Senator Babafemi Ojudu (APC, Ekiti) supported Lawan’s position insisting that they must be allowed to study the whole bill before they vote as is the convention in the parliament.
Ekweremadu however made spirited effort to explain to the red chamber all aspects of the controversial amendment but the senators stood their ground.
At this point, the session became rowdy which lasted for over 30 minutes and thereafter Senate President David Mark said votes won’t be taken on clause 9 but appealed to his colleagues to vote on the non-controversial clauses, which they did.
Daily Trust had exclusively reported in April that some of the likely provisions of the new constitution include abolishing of the 774 local government areas as the third tier of government; stoppage of Federal allocation to the local governments; setting aside 50 per cent of oil revenues for the Niger Delta; creation of an additional state for the South-East; and provision of six-year single term for the president.
The six-year term was first proposed by the Ekweremadu committee in June last year but it was rejected by the Senate in July.
The clauses adopted yesterday include the one mandating the National Assembly Clerk to notify the Independent  National Electoral Commission (INEC)  of existence of vacancy in the parliament, empowering INEC to de-register political parties for non-fulfillment of constitutional provisions, conferment of jurisdiction on electoral offenses on the Federal High court and enlisting former Senate Presidents and Speakers of the House of Representatives as members of the National Council of States and extension of time for the conduct of rerun election from 7 to 21 days.