Guardian

•We Are Working, Report Will Soon Be Ready — Ekweremadu

FOR failing to meet its self-imposed target of giving Nigerians the much-awaited Constitution amendment by June 1, 2013, pressure now mounts on both Chambers of the National Assembly to reset its priorities in line with the yearnings and aspirations of the people.

R.A.C.E Achara, a professor of Constitutional Law, Saturday, expressed the fear that the present crop of lawmakers lack the necessary political will and capacity to give Nigerians a new Constitution, even as he argued that the process has already been complicated by NASS’ faulty moves.

According to the university teacher, the first thing would have been to “cut down” the Constitution to manageable limits and allow experts in the judiciary and the body of law to handle it.  “The way it is couched has made it unworkable as well as prone to losing its powers, because it is now dealing with almost every issue of minor statutory,” Achara said.

He stated that, since it has become clear that the National Assembly can no longer deliver on the assignment, it should resort to a body of experts in Political Science, History, Journalism, Constitutional Law, among others, who are well versed in Constitution making, to harmonise views already expressed by Nigerians and present them to the National Assembly for debate.

But officials in the two chambers of the National Assembly, Saturday, said the amendment process is still very much on course.

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who chairs the Constitution Review Committee, said the lawmakers have, as a matter of fact, been meeting in recent weeks to resolve grey areas.

Speaking on the Deputy Speaker’s behalf, Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Uche Anichukwu, said the Committee actually met in Lagos recently, after which the Secretariat and its consultants were asked to do further work in a few gray areas.

He added that the committee members had met twice in Abuja since the Lagos retreat to clean up the report. “I guess the report will hit the floor of the Senate in no distant time,” Anichukwu said.

A member of the Constitution Amendment Committee, Senator Magnus Abe, who declined to speak comprehensively on the development since he is not the spokesperson, also insisted that the committee is working in the interest of all Nigerians.

According to him, the process is taking time to enable the committee efficiently address issues emanating from the country’s constitutional democracy, as well as seek solutions to challenges from past experiences.

He said: “Anybody looking at the Constitution needs to look at it from that perspective and not how it serves the interest of the North or the West. You cannot develop the North without the West, you cannot develop the South without the North; it is one country”.

But  Achara insists that the National Assembly already has so much in its hand and, therefore, does not have the time to effectively handle the amendment.

Speaking on the delay that has attended the process, Achara noted that NASS’ inability to come up with clear terms of motive and areas of amendment, especially between issues of policy and administration, constitute a clog to the process.

“The time frame has passed and the reasons we can’t have it within that time frame is because of the system they adopted. There is cacophony of views, which, I think, has made the job complex.

“Remember, the National Assembly has their job and other issues affecting the country like the one now happening in the northern part. So, they are concerned with that and working hard to deal with those issues. For them to now go into this complicated problems of our Constitution, which is 320 sections, for them to amend it, they will not be able to do it within the time frame they have given to themselves.

Achara said the sections requiring amendment border on national development.

When the 7^th National Assembly embarked on the mission to amend the 1999 Constitution last year, Nigerians were assured that the task would be completed before the end of the first quarter of 2013. The lawmakers, after one of its retreats in the South South, moved the date to the beginning of June and proceeded with a national tour of all the constituencies to feel the pulse of the people.

The overwhelming responses and memoranda received from different interest groups at various fora were also indications that Nigerians are enthusiastic to have an amended Constitution that would address the socio-political challenges overheating the polity.

For a country that is already drifting along ethnic and religious paths, it is hoped that the reviewed constitution would redefine the basis of Nigeria’s existence as well as fashion a roadmap for accelerated development.

But, hope seems to be fading as the committee failed to deliver within the time frame. Many have blamed the delay on upturned priority among lawmakers.

Although several bills have been debated and passed by the Seventh Senate, greater commitment to the Constitution is expected of the legislators.

In his inaugural speech last year, Senator Ekweremadu assured of his committee’s readiness to be time-conscious considering the relevance of the Constitution to national development and peaceful co-existence.

In doing that, he also promised to adopt global best practices in ensuring that only the best is provided for Nigerians at the end of the exercise.

He listed issues on the front burner to include local government financial autonomy, state policing, devolution of powers of the federal government, fiscal federalism as well as gender equality.

And when he was taken on the lingering issue of state creation, Ekweremadu said it was not among matters of first hand consideration in view of its strenuous process, a statement he later refuted.

Shortly after the zonal tours, the committee appeared to have gone to bed, only occupied with issues of relatively less national importance.

While most Nigerians maintained that crafting a quality Constitution that would capture the interest and aspirations of Nigerians should override the issue of time spent on it, others blamed   Ekweremadu’s committee for unnecessarily keeping Nigerians in suspense.

Many Nigerians share the view that the challenges confronting the nation emanate from the extant laws and as such, the committee should give the review the needed priority.

But Mr. Eric Oba, a public lawyer, said if the constitution committee still finds time to meet and their work is in progress, time lapse should not be too much of an issue.

“Our interest and focus should be on a Constitution that will capture the interest and aspirations of the Nigerian public”, he said.

The need to amend the 1999 Constitution had begun in the fifth Assembly but the process was truncated and the baby thrown away with the bathwater because a lot of people read political meanings into it.

In fact, the action was taken basically because of Obasanjo’s controversial third term agenda. When the third term agenda was overwhelmingly defeated, the entire constitution amendment process collapsed.

The sixth Assembly picked up the issue but it was, again, derailed by power tussle between the Senate and the House of Representatives over chairmanship of the Constitution Review Committee.

The two chambers quickly resolved to go their separate ways and that saw the setting up of separate Constitution Review Committees aided by the Deputy Senate President for the upper chamber and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Sixth Assembly.

The decision to go separate ways was a huge success as each chamber was able to reach conclusion on the areas of the Constitution that were slighted for amendment. Areas of disagreement between the two chambers were consequently harmonised at the conference of the two chambers.

Although, the Sixth Assembly made history by amending the Constitution for the first time, the Seventh National Assembly saw amendment of the Constitution as open-ended.

Thus, Constitution Review Committee of both chambers swung into action in late 2012 with a promise to deliver a brand new federal Constitution before the end of the first quarter of 2013.