The House of Representatives last week proposed for the ouster of immunity for the President and other members of the executive, the scrapping of the State Independent Electoral Commissions, SIECS, and autonomy for local governments among other constitution amendment proposals. TORDUE SALEM reports
Several months after a tedious, but thorough reworking of the 1999 Constitution, the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, on Thursday, last week, presented its report before the Green Chamber wherein farreaching recommendations were made.
Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, the Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee, tasked with the amendment process, presented the report in plenary, urging the House to expedite consideration of its clauses before results of lawmakers' voting on the document would be forwarded to the State Houses of Assembly for another round of voting. The House of Representatives which introduced a new and people-oriented approach to the review of the organic document in 2012 also took a radical departure from the Senate by removing a clause that gives life pension to former Heads of State and other principal public servants after leaving office.
No immunity for president, governors
The House Committee in its report proposed the removal of immunity from prosecution while in office for president, vicepresident, Governors and their deputies. The Senate on the other hand about a month ago retained the odious section 308, arguing that to deny the executives immunity from prosecution while they are holding office, would cause "anarchy" in the system. On the removal of immunity, Ihedioha said: "Section 308 was amended in line with the results from the Peoples' Public Sessions.
The Committee also removed the immunity from prosecution from criminal offences for persons occupying the position of president, vice president, governor and deputy governor, and to stem impunity levels." This is a departure from the Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Amended) which precludes the occupants of the offices from criminal prosecution. Specifically, Section 308 subsection 1(a) states that: "No civil or criminal proceedings shall be instituted or continued against a person to whom this section applies during his period of office."
Modify existing laws
The Committee also altered section 315 of the Constitution by removing the powers of the president and governors of the states to modify existing laws.
Indigene-settler issue
The Ad Hoc Committee also seeks to end the indigene-settler problem that has pitted communities against each other from Umuleri and Aguleri to Fulani-Plateau communities and other flashpoints, by lowering the bar for settlers in any part of the country to be regarded as indigenes of those areas.
The Alteration of heading of Chapter III Section 25, Ihedioha said, was done "in order to address the various conflicts and crises surrounding the question of who is an indigene or settler in the community, the Committee has redefined citizenship to take away this divide meaning that a person who has lived in a community for a specified period is entitled to the same rights and privileges as citizens of that community. "The amendment under this chapter fully defines indegeneship in a way to eliminate the conflict that this has posed in the past."
Local government administration
The Committee in "Section 7 on the Local Government System", followed from the recommendation of the People's Public Sessions, clearly underscored the need to create independence and autonomy for local government councils and give the councils their deserved role as catalysts for development at the grassroots level.
Accordingly, the Committee created a fixed uniform term of four years for local government councils and prescribed denial of appropriation to councils that are not democratically elected. The reforms proposed by the Committee prescribed the mode of election of local government officials, their functions, tenure, qualifications for elections, and other related matters.
But while the Committee got it right on the conditions for eligibility of local government chairmen to vote in the event of the creation of new states, they missed a salient point in section 8 on the same issue regarding local government electorate, considering that there would be possibilities that INEC may not capture all electorate in a given local government, as a result of system default and not because a particular member of the electorate failed to register.
The Committee of about 56 members also seeks to bar unelected local government chairmen from getting funding from government purse. The subsisting practice across the country, today, is that caretaker chairmen appointed by governors and not elected by the people are allowed access to funds by the governors; the monies that should be reserved for elected chairmen of those local governments.
Section 8 on New States and Boundary Adjustment goes thus: "the Committee reviewed the provisions of section 8 to emphasise the importance of elected local government councils, by inserting alterations that will ensure that only elected local government officials can participate in the process for creation of new states. Also, clarifying that only registered voters in a local government area can participate in a referendum for the creation of a new state."
Joint account for state/LGs
On the contentious joint accounts for state and local governments, the committee proposed the abrogation of such policy. Hence, the committee altered the contentious Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution "to abrogate State Joint Local Government accounts and empower each local government to maintain its own special account to be called "Local Government Council Allocation account" into which shall be paid directly allocations made to the local governments by the Federal Government from the Federation Account and from the government of the state."
Abrogation of SIECs
Under the amendment proposed, elections into local government councils will be managed by the national election management body, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. The Ihedioha-led Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution altered Section 197 to abrogate State Independent Electoral Commissions, SIECs. According to Ihedioha, "to protect the integrity of the electoral process at local government level and respond to the complaints of partisanship of State Independent Electoral Commissions, SIEC, accordingly, it deleted the existence of SIECs and vested the power to conduct local government councils elections across the federation in the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC."
Alteration of constitution
While considering Section 9 in this section, the Committee sought to clarify and remove ambiguities in language with respect to the alteration of the Constitution and further dispense with the requirement for assent of the president to be obtained for the amendment of the Constitution.
The Committee came to the conclusion that the rigorous provisions for the alteration of the Constitution by members of the National Assembly and the participation of the 36 State Houses of Assembly represented such adequate participation of Nigerians and that assent of the President negated the principle contained therein".
Section 12
On treaty, he said the Committee altered the provisions in Section 12 relating to Nigeria's international treaty obligations, to provide for National Assembly's ratification and enactment.
Section 42
The Committee altered section 42 of the Constitution to specifically prohibit discrimination against persons living with disability.
New sections 45A – D
The House also introduced a new section 45A – D into the constitution to make "enforceable certain socio-economic rights as fundamental rights and incorporating them into Chapter IV, the justiciable part of the Constitution, thus creating as justiciable, the rights to education, right to favourable environment, right to free primary and maternal health care services, and the right to basic housing."
Independent candidacy
In Section 65, the Committee agreed to allow for independent candidacy in elections in Nigeria. This would however be subject to conditions stipulated under the Electoral Act.
Electoral offence
The Committee also amended Section 66 to give seriousness to the issue of electoral offence. The Committee said with this section, it has now provided grounds for disqualification of a candidate from contesting elections where he has been found guilty of an offence. This is also applicable at the state level. The committee in its report in Section 153 felt that the issue of electoral offences is of such importance as to warrant the creation of an independent electoral offences commission to handle it.
On federal offices
In the report, the committee also reworked the constitution to entrench the independence of the offices of the Attorney- General of the Federation, the Accountant- General of the Federation and the Auditor-General of the Federation, and insulate them from political control. As such, the committee put these offices on the first line charge of the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.
In Sections 84A – C, the Committee included a new section in the Constitution creating a new office of the Accountant- General of the Federation and Accountant- General of the Federal Government to ensure that persons are appointed into these two separate offices for professional management of resources.
The Committee also reworked Section 150 to give effect to the results of the Peoples' Public Session which voted to separate the office of the Minister of Justice from that of the Attorney-General of the Federation. It made amendments to reflect this and insulating an independent office of the Attorney-General of the Federation from partisanship and to be managed by a professional lawyer.
This is also applicable at the state level. The committee altered Section 80 and "strengthened the provisions of section 80 of the Constitution to plug leakages from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation and public funds of Nigeria to ensure that no expenditure is made by any organ of government without appropriation by the legislature."
Budgeting
On budgeting, Sections 81 and 82, according to the Deputy Speaker, was altered to ensure timely passage of the National Budget and discipline in expenditure. The report stipulated that budget be submitted by the executive for approval no later than 90 days before the expiration of the fiscal year.
Roles for traditional rulers
Traditional rulers also find roles in the proposal. In its report, the Committee amended "Section 201 and 3rd Schedule, Part I: Role for Traditional Rulers to "create a role for traditional rulers at the federal and state levels providing for representation of traditional rulers in the National Council of States and the creation of a State Council of Chiefs at the state level."
Police, court
The Committee in this section and across the entirety of the Constitution deleted the word "Force" from the name of the Nigeria Police providing for the name of the Police to now be "Nigerian Police" rather than "Nigeria Police Force" The Committee also amended Section 241 "to address concerns over delay in the courts by limiting the use of interlocutory appeals to stay proceedings in court".
Exclusive and Concurrent Lists
The Committee altered the Constitution to provide for the transfer of Railways, from the Exclusive Legislative to the Concurrent List to further boost devolution of powers. Health, Housing and Electricity were also transferred to the concurrent list.
State creation
The House in its report also towed the path of the Senate on creation of new states, saying the requests fail to meet the requirements. Ihedioha told the House that: "The Committee received requests for creation of states running into more than 35 states. None of the requests submitted to the Committee complied with the procedure for creation of states outlined in section 8 of the constitution. Accordingly, the committee was unable to treat any of these requests.
The committee, however, recognises that the existing provision in the Constitution for the creation of new states is unclear and cumbersome. Accordingly, the Committee has clarified the process to make it more coherent". In his response, the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, said the House will consider and adopt the report before proceeding on annual recess.
"We shall consult with the leadership and look at the possibility of considering the report before we go on vacation," he said. He said that copies of the amended constitution would be made available to members preparatory to the consideration of the report.
The Speaker applauded the committee for its commitment to the amendment process. It is not yet clear if the House would begin considering the report as presented this week, but what is certain is that like some contentious aspects of the Senate version, the report is bound to spark a lot of controversy that would test the faith of Nigerians in a brighter future.
National Mirror