N’Assembly faults NBA call for referendum

November 1, 2012 by John Ameh and Oluwole Josiah

 

Senate President, David Mark and Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal
| credits: File copy

The National Assembly on Wednesday said the decision of the National Assembly to amend the 1999 Constitution was to produce a “people’s constitution” and not to preside over the disintegration of the country.

The House of Representatives particularly noted that Sections 4 and 9 of the constitution empower the legislature to make laws for good governance and spell out the procedures for amending the constitution.

“Any procedure or method adopted outside the provisions of Section 9 in particular to amend the constitutional will be illegal and this House will not be part of an illegality,” the Deputy House Majority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, told The PUNCH in Abuja.

“What kind of referendum are they seeking? That Nigerians should reject the constitution or accept it?”

The House was reacting to the position of the Nigerian Bar Association, which on Tuesday faulted the procedure adopted by the National Assembly to amend the constitution.

The NBA opposed the plan of the House to hold public sessions in 360 constituencies on November 10, saying it would be impossible to get the views of all Nigerians on the constitution at a one-day session.

Its President, Mr. Okey Wali (SAN), had pointed out that there was no clearly defined methodology adopted by the legislature for amending the constitution.

But, the House expressed surprise that the NBA, which it regularly interacted with as a stakeholder on the constitution was opposing the exercise “rather than submitting proposals to our ad-hoc committee or go to the people’s public sessions.”

Ogor argued that the public sessions to be held in the constituencies were to bring “Nigerians to be actively involved in the process of producing their constitution.”

He added, “As a House, we are taking the amendment to the people through the 360 constituencies so that everybody will be involved at the local level.

“This is the first time this will happen. The NBA should participate in this process instead of condemning the House.”

The House leader claimed that by its stance, the NBA was trying to heat up the polity.

He said, “The issue of a referendum is inconsequential and it is alien to constitutional amendment anywhere in the world.

“We have no other country but Nigeria and we must work together to safeguard it.”

Also, the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, told The PUNCH that much as the NBA was entitled to its opinion, the National Assembly would not adopt any procedure outside the constitution.

Meanwhile, the Senate has faulted the suggestion by the NBA that a referendum be conducted at the final stage of the constitution review exercise as a way of legitimising its outcome.

It described the suggestion as “extra constitutional” as there was no legal basis for a referendum in the process of altering the provisions of the constitution.

The Majority Leader of the Senate Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), while speaking on Wednesday, said he was surprised that the NBA did not go further in proffering how the referendum would be conducted.

He said, “On what law would the referendum be based? It will amount to amending the constitution through extra constitutional means. There is no provision in the constitution that supports that suggestion.

“Since 1963, it was only the Sixth Senate that successfully amended the constitution and it did it three times, so why should we change the process after achieving that kind of success. We should not change a winning formula.”

Ndoma-Egba further noted that NBA’s position on the number of issues being canvassed for amendment was unacceptable, saying they should be determined by Nigerians.

He said, “We at the National Assembly cannot begin to act as a body of editors to prune down what we consider as too many issues. We are bound to collate the issues as raised by Nigerians.

“The provisions in the law have inbuilt mechanism to determine the issues that would be taken or not and that is any issue that receives approval of two thirds majority of the members of the Houses of Assembly would stand as part of the amendment.”

SOURCE:The Punch - Nigeria's Most Widely Read Newspaper 1 November 2012.