• Activists Flay Exercise • Review Gulps Billions
• How Jonahan, Adoke ‘Outsmarted NASS’ On N4bn Review
THE need for political survival, over ambition of the last National Assembly, and deft political foot works of former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, may have been responsible for the waste of about N4b spent on the last constitution review exercise. And to ensure that the amount is not completely wasted, the National Assembly is considering re-presenting for President Muhammadu Buhari’s assent a review of some of the relevant amendments, which did not see the light of day under former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Already, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, has said in Abuja that the review by the 8th Assembly will include amendments from the extensive work done by the last Assembly. He spoke while inaugurating the new review committee of the House.

Speaking to The Guardian in his office, former Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, gave insight into how the last exercise became a stillbirth.

“It was because we were engaging with the President then. And each time we met with him, he gave us the impression that the issue has been resolved. By the time we got to know a game was going on, we did not have time to…because to veto, we need to go through first reading, second reading, third reading and all of that – the entire gamut of the legislative process,” Ndoma-Egba said.

Asked if that meant the National Assembly was outsmarted, he said: “More or less, yes…As for what truncated the process, I can say that there were a number of issues. One, under the proposal, there was supposed to be an Attorney General that was not a political office holder. We tried to separate the office of Attorney General from that of the Minister of Justice.

“The Attorney General wasn’t to be appointed by the President but by the National Judicial Council (NJC). I think that was what his major concern was. He did not agree with the mode of appointment of the Attorney General. And we had several meetings with the former President on this and he asked us to make our case in writing, send it back and he will sign, but he never did. That amendment just died on the table at the convenience of an individual.”

It is not exactly known if the former Minister of Justice took the actions being attributed to him for purely nationalistic reasons or because it was targeted at whittling down his powers, but other National Assembly sources cited the nature of the last election as the reason the last exercise appeared a wasted effort. Adoke could not be reached at the weekend for his comments.

“With the election staring everyone in the face, the politicians found it difficult to concentrate on this all important and fundamental assignment of state. Their political survival at the polls, understandably, took their attention,” a top National Assembly source said.

Another source said the National Assembly put so many amendment issues on the table thereby making the executive arm hesitant. “They were too eager and too ambitious to justify the huge amount at their disposal, about N4b, and in the process made it too unwieldy at that time. A constitution is not a document you rush to amend too fast,” he said.

But Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, in a paper he delivered at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, last October, gave his own version of the history.

According to him, he “very reliably gathered” that Jonathan had appended his signature to the alteration bill presented to him and had, thus assented to the bill.

He added: “However, the former Attorney General of the Federation who was against assenting to the bill subsequently persuaded him to veto it. The presidency wrote to the National Assembly, stating clearly that it was returning the bill, but the bill did not accompany the letter. This prompted the National Assembly to demand the return of the original bill sent to the President for assent in the light of his alleged veto, but the presidency refused this request, ostensibly because there would have been no way of covering up the fact of the signing of the original alteration bill by the President.”

Without providing concrete evidence to back his position, the Deputy Senate President disclosed that the “former Attorney-General and those behind the unfortunate manipulation thought that since a president of Northern extraction was in the offing, allowing the amendments to scale through would whittle down the powers of the incoming president.”

Ekweremadu noted that the recommendations of the lawmakers were in the best interest of the country, adding that Nigerians had often complained that too much power was vested in the presidency.”

“Our aim was to democratise power in the best interest of the country. You cannot make an enduring law with an individual or section of the country in mind because it will not stand the test of time. Importantly, a country is built around enduring laws and institutions, not the trust in the goodness of a leader, incumbent or incoming.”

Members of the National Assembly (NASS) argue that the constitution review will reflect the dynamism of the political landscape, pundits, however, say it amounts to barking up the wrong tree, and could set the nation farther away from realistic goals.

Estimates of the current review announced last week by the National Assembly leadership are yet unknown, but early indications suggest another N3bn or more may be added to what has already been sunk in the unending exercise.

Justifying the need for the exercise, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe who represented Rivers South East constituency in the 7th Assembly, said: “It is an ongoing process, as far as legislation is concerned. There are various legislations that, one way or the other, are affected by the constitution. The Senate has a permanent committee dedicated to looking into such issue, that is, senate constitution review committee. So, whatever may have been the fate of the last exercise, the National Assembly would not stop from reviewing issues that require such.”

His view on the need for reviews was shared by immediate past Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, who noted: “The constitution is the basic norm, the source of all laws and the legitimacy of all laws. It is, therefore, a living document and should respond to the socio political dynamics of the polity at all times. For as long as society is dynamic, constitutional review will remain present and imperative.”

According to Ndoma-Egba, a review is even more necessary given the constitution “did not originate from the people; rather it was imposed on them by a departing military government. An elected assembly with constituent powers did not draft it. So, a review or alteration is inevitable, to bring it to at least approximate the will of the people. It should strengthen our democracy as each alteration attempts to address an evident gap.”

But rights activist and convener of Movement for the Voice of Democracy (MOVERS), Mr. Ifeanyichukwu Okonkwo, thinks nothing could be as misguided.

He said: “The Nigerian elite is living in denial. Everybody knows that this country is not working. We want this country restructured. That is why the country is not working. We need a new constitution, not an amendment. It is difficult to move forward if we don’t really decide to give ourselves a constitution that reflects a restructured country, so that there will be unlimited growth and the engines of production will be strengthened. Right now, there is no productivity anywhere because the biggest business we have is governance.

Driving forward his argument for restructuring, Okonkwo said: “We want true federalism. Before Gowon’s regime in 1968, the regions were contributing to the centre. The states ought to be centres of excellence and of higher productivity. If you go to Abuja today, there are more houses springing up there than the state of Texas in the United States is expanding. It is unbelievable that Lagos, where you have productive industries scattered all over the place is not growing as fast as Abuja. Why?”

According to him, The mere fact that the Speaker of a parliament sponsored by a political party would stand up to tell me about a constitutional review and the party leadership is not saying a word shows that the whole thing is a fraud. This is because, it is the political party that would engender the issue of amendments or whether we are going to have a new constitution. All that the APC government has succeeded in doing is step in to the big government established by the PDP, so that they can milk us as much as possible because crisis will break out in the country.”

Political activist and one of Lagos State’s delegates in the 492-member National Conference set up by former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, Yinka Odumakin described the exercise as a hollow ritual and a waste of billions of naira.

“What we need is a total and organic review of Nigeria. We have been lying to ourselves that we are a federation. We must become a federation indeed. If the National Assembly is serious, everything we need, to move this country forward, is in the National Conference report. But we continue to waste money under the guise of reviewing the constitution. These reviews will only take us farther away from our destination as a country.

“Federalism is what we need. Over the last years, what they have done is remove a comma here, put a full stop there; it’s mostly punctuations they are reviewing. We don’t need to spend a dime anymore on the constitution. The 2014 Conference needs to be implemented right away.”

The National Assembly has spent not less than N9bn on constitution reviews since 1999. According to sources within the Assembly, the first review, by the 5th National Assembly, gulped ‎a total of N2.5b made up of N1bn officially budgeted and another N1.5b sourced from donations.

The second, and the only successful one, was initiated by the ‎David Mark-led 6th National Assembly. It cost N3b, sourced officially and unofficially. Apart from the official N1b shared equally by the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Senate and House of Representatives’ ad-hoc committees, led by Deputy President of the Senate and the then House Deputy Speaker, Ike Ekweremadu and Emeka Ihedioha respectively, ‎the committees received foreign donations and assistance amounting to another N2b.
‎ ‎
The success recorded by the 6th National Assembly spurred yet another attempt by the 7th, where the highest amount of N4b was spent. In addition to the initial official figure of N1b for both houses, the budget was later hiked to N2b. Another sum of N2b was generated from external sources.