How confab report may be implemented

Previous constitutional conferences did not come with the additional burden of charting out courses for the implementation of their reports as it was clear from the onset what they were established to do.Both the Constituent Assembly and the 1995 Constitutional Conference were supposed to draft new constitutions for the country and they did just that.With […]

Previous constitutional conferences did not come with the additional burden of charting out courses for the implementation of their reports as it was clear from the onset what they were established to do.
Both the Constituent Assembly and the 1995 Constitutional Conference were supposed to draft new constitutions for the country and they did just that.
With no history to fall back on, the current National Conference seems headed towards a T-junction and nobody seems sure which direction it would take in terms of implementation. Report of the conferece is scheudled to be submitted to President Jonathan today.
Former governor of Plateau State, Sir Fidelis Tapgun, who is a  delegate at the conference, in a recent interview, provided what could serve as an insight into how the recommendations of the conference will work.
 He explained that the recommendations are categorized into three, saying the mode of implementation would depend on which category a particular recommendation falls under.
“We have separated all our decisions. In some areas, the Constitution has to be amended, there are no two ways to it.
“The whole purpose was not to draft a new Constitution, but to look at what affects Nigerians. We looked at all these and we brought some suggestions that will help Nigeria to move forward.
“They are in three categories, some the president will implement immediately, some need the consent of the National Assembly and some need the National Assembly to promulgate new laws to amend the Constitution,” he said.
Going by the explanation, issues like the deleting of local governments from the Constitution, state police and others would face stiff scrutiny since they would have to come to the National Assembly.
Senator Ita Enang, who chairs the committee on rules and business in the Senate, says however that he cannot predict what will happen to the aspects of the Confab report that comes to the National Assembly as their implementation would depend  on how the items are brought.
 “I will not tell you the procedure it will go through when it is tabled, I can only tell you when it is tabled because I do not know in what form it will be tabled, whether it will come by way of bills, or submission to the National Assembly or it will come by way of the president addressing the nation on the budget. It is only when you know the form and it has been laid before us that you can tell the legislative procedure it will go through. We cannot anticipate a thing,” he said.
But the chairman of the House of Representatives committee on judiciary, Dr Ali Ahmad, predicted that report of the Confab will not see the light of day.
He said going by the majority opinion of his colleagues in the House, the report is as good as dead.
“It will be thrown out. I have a lot of respect for our people both we that are in the opposition and those in the PDP. Those in the PDP, even those in the leadership of the House, have been recorded widely condemning the establishment, the procedure and the supposed outcome,” he said.
Ahmad however conceded that a shift in position by some of the members opposed to the conference is likely due to the politics involved.
“The consensus in the National Assembly, especially the House of Reps, is that if this thing is brought, it will be thrown out. But like I said, everything is now politicised. Whatever it is, the truth will prevail. When the document comes, I’m sure it will change nothing,” he said.
The only way the report would not meet the fate predicted by Ahmad, his colleague in the Senate say, is for the President to separate the issue when presenting them to the Senate.
Enang who advised President Jonathan on how to avoid a catastrophic end for the report when taking it to the National Assembly explain that former President Olusegun Obasanjo took a similar approach with his Political Reform Conference.
 “…What I want President Jonathan to do is to receive the report, present it before the Federal Executive Council, set up a white paper drafting committee and for that he should use members of the secretariat of the National Conference as it were and let them work as part of the committee that will draft the white paper.
“The white paper will take issues that are administrative and then give the opinion of government on what should be done.. Matters that are administrative, you get permanent secretaries to work on it. Matters that are of revenue allocation you get members of the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, some former finance commissioners let them look at it. Matters that concern amendments to existing laws, send them to the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, let them prepare amendment to the laws and send them to the National Assembly as proposed amendments. Matters that relates to amendment of the constitution you now propose the amendments to the constitution and submit that to the National Assembly by way of Bills because that is the only way that it could be done,” he stated.
Whether the President would take the advice remains to be seen, but many people are curious to see how the President will implement the recommendations within his powers and how he will approach the National Assembly on the issues that require legislative input.