After two days of deliberation to amend some sections of the 1999 constitution, the Senate on Thursday passed into law the bill to alter the constitution and voted for cross carpeting in the National Assembly and state Assemblies. Opposition Action Congress (AC), however, faulted the upper chamber in most of the amendments and said they were self-serving and totally inexplicable.
The final passage of the bill followed the innovative use of the electronic voting machine the senators used to vote on each of the amended sections and with the passage of the bill, lawmakers can now cross carpet on the floor whether their parties have crisis or not.
The bill, which is expecting the passage of the House of Representatives, will now go to the state Assemblies after the House must have concluded and passed the amendment and would require two third of the state Assemblies to finally amend the constitution.
Sections 68 and 107 dealing with tenure of members of the National Assembly and state Assembly were completely deleted and in the recommendation of the committee that reviewed the constitution "to liberalise the political space and maintain the fundamental right to freedom of association".
The amended constitution also raised qualification for contest of election as president, governor and members of the National Assembly from school certificate to tertiary level certificate.
On the tenure of president and governors, the amended Sections 135 and 180 now stipulate that "in the calculation of the four-year term, where a re-election has taken place and the person earlier sworn in wins the re-election, the time spent in office before the date the election was annulled, shall be taken into account". On disqualification of persons for president and governors' positions, Sections 137 and 182 cleared the way for indicted persons over embezzlement or fraud by a judicial commission of inquiry or an administrative panel of inquiry or a tribunal set up under the Tribunals of Inquiry Act and accepted by either the federal or state governments.
Meanwhile, Lai Mohammed, national publicity secretary of AC while reacting on Thursday, listed some of the areas of concern such as the amendment raising academic qualification for contestants to tertiary level certificate; freedom for legislators to cross carpet; allowing those indicted for fraud and other offences to run for office and retaining the power of the president to appoint the INEC chairman.
"We have taken the pains to find out what influenced our distinguished senators to make these amendments, and we are miffed, to say the least, at the reasoning behind the amendments," the AC said. AC said, for example, that the reason the Senate threw out the Uwais panel's recommendation on the appointment of the INEC chair was because some ranking senators felt some of the judges appointed by the NJC in the past have been found wanting, hence they feel the council cannot be trusted to handle the appointment of the INEC boss.
"This argument is simplistic and specious! For one, it is wrong to judge the NJC on the basis of the conduct of an insignificant number of judges appointed by the council. And it is necessary to point out, also, that NJC appoints judges based on recommendations and does not initiate the process, which will be the case in the appointment of the INEC boss.
"The Senate will have to look for another reason to convince Nigerians that it is not acting against their (Nigerians) interest, as far as efforts to ensure free, fair, transparent and credible elections are concerned," the party said.
On the amendment allowing indicted persons to contest, AC said it was self-serving and based on narrow considerations, as it was meant to tackle state governors who, perhaps to prevent some interested senators from succeeding them, get such individuals indicted on flimsy basis.
"Even if that were true, in some cases, is it enough to give a free passage to fraudsters and criminals to seek important offices or populate the federal legislature? Or is the Senate trying to tell Nigerians that its ranks are populated by men and women of doubtful characters who must be protected at all cost? We are baffled by this amendment and we call for a rethink," it said.
Senate passes bill to amend 1999 constitution (http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9585:senate-passes-bill-to-amend-1999-constitution-&catid=85:national&Itemid=340)
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