THERE seems to be hope that the various efforts geared towards updating the 1999 Constitution could, after all, yield result ' not just another cosmetic result, but the kind that would befit this administration's claim to being transformational.The glimmer came during the presentation of the report by the Justice Alfa Belgore-led committee put together by President Jonathan, to 'review outstanding issues from recent constitutional conferences in Nigeria,' whatever that meant.What is certain, however, is that nearly everything in the country appears outstanding, from the economy to governance and to the continued survival of the union. That much was attested to by the president, when he cried out loud, that he did not initiate the sundry challenges that were crowding his government; he said they were there since 1914.So, to limit a search for an improved Constitution to only recent outstanding issues might not aggregate the entire situation, and could be limiting in terms of providing appropriate remediation to the various crises tearing the nation apart.All the same, the president has demonstrated some courage and purpose, in setting up the committee.Snippets from the report of the committee, perhaps, also show that fundamental restructuring would be necessary in some areas. But being a presidential commaittee, it could not go beyond its terms of reference to beginning to tackle issues government would not want to hear. Nonetheless, the grim fact is that this country needs fundamental restructuring.Autonomy of Local GovtTHE committee seems to favour a review that would give substantial autonomy for local governments and freeing the tier from the kind of imperial control by states that we witness.Issues in that regard would include giving local governments some measure of fiscal independence from states and the political autonomy to hold elections and run the system without undue interference.This sounds attractive, except that when you take local governments away from the states, giving them financial autonomy and capacity to run their own elections, then, states would be empty. States are made up of local governments, without which the former would cease to exist.It remains to be seen how the relationship between states and councils could be better managed in such a way that it is symbiotic and democratically rewarding.Justiciable RightsANOTHER area the Belgore report could shakeup the system a bit is the proposal to rework the Chapter Two of the Constitution. Currently, provisions of this chapter are largely of no relevance to the reality of reckless abandonment of the people by the political class.Chapter Two talks about the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principle of State Policy, stating the relationship between the government and the people. It states the political, economic, social, educational and other objectives of the State, in a manner that suggests the obligations of the State to the people, but without empowering the people to hold the government to account.On paper, the government is welfarist, but in reality, the government is a leech, draining more than half of the resources to oil the dubious apparatus of its authority.The Belgore committee proposes that provisions in this chapter be moved to Chapter Four, which deals with Fundamental Rights, for which the people can challenge policy makers when those rights are breached.If the political class opens its eyes to permit such review, the implication could well be that the people's rights to housing, employment, education and general welfare would become provisions that could be adjudicated upon when the need arises.At present, it is not as if Chapter Four does not suffer terrible breaches and abuses; rights are abused everyday and some do not even exist in this clime.It is hoped that gradually, the attitude of the political class could begin to change when it is realised that government is running against the common tide. The fear of backlash, like the present security challenges tend to show, could begin to send some home truth to those in government.Devolution of PowersTHE Belgore committee also favours the devolution of more responsibilities and sharing of powers between the Federal Government and the States, for instance, in the running of prisons and the railway. It is not possible to devolve more powers and responsibilities without readjusting the present revenue sharing formula.States are asking for more powers to do some of the things, which the government at the centre has appropriated to itself in the Exclusive Legislative List in the Constitution. They want to construct railways, invest in the energy sector, run state police and, in fact, have more access to resources in their backyards.Once again, another Study CommitteeAS usual, the Federal Government has set up another committee to study the Belgore-committee report. The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Bello Adoke (SAN), heads the committee, which has three weeks to submit its report.The Adoke committee is to 'identify the areas/issues on which the review committee affirmed consensus earlier reached in previousconferences and for which the review committee prepared draft bills for consideration and legislation; identify the areas/issues on which past constitutional conferences had arrived at a consensus but which the review committee felt the consensus was no longer current or relevant and therefore did not prepare any draft bills.'The committee will also 'identify areas/issues on which the previous conferences and the review committee did not reach a consensus; study each of the draft bills submitted by the review committee and make recommendations for the government to either accept, modify or reject them in part or whole as the case may be.'Observe that any time a matter gets to that stage, the government begins to sound too familiar. It was the same thing that happened to the report of the Justice Muhammadu Uwais committee put together in 2007 by the late President Umaru Yar'Adua to provide a basis for far-reaching political reforms.The committee submitted its report with good recommendations. Among them were:' Amendment of the Constitution to provide for the disposal of electoral litigation before elected officials are sworn-in.' INEC's funding to be drawn from the first-line charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, the unbundling of INEC, and abolition of the State Independent Electoral Commission.' A more democratic form of appointment of the INEC chair, by putting the powers of appointment in the Judiciary and Legislature, instead of leaving it to the discretion of the President.' The unbundling of INEC, to create other bodies that could take some load of the electoral body.' The adoption of the 'Open-Secret' Ballot system, bearing in mind that it's simple and less expensive, compared to the poor management of other technologically driven options.HOWEVER, these recommendations were given to another study committee under former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), to scrutinise before drafting bills for the legislature to consider.If that job were thoroughly done, there won't be any need to begin to clamour for another amendment in less than two years. That is why some groups and persons outside government have asked that a neutral body be set up to consider issues of constitutional amendment. This is ostensibly due to the limited confidence the people have in the political class to sincerely amend a Constitution that is so controversial from day one.The challenges to arriving at a consensus on the matter are quite huge. First, it is a big task to achieve a consensus on which issues deserve revisiting in the Constitution. For the political class, there is a Constitution already and whatever needs to be added or subtracted could be done by the legislature.The Patriots, a body of elder statesmen and opinion leaders, and others groups outside government do not agree with the stand of the political class. They are of the strong view that the legislature is elected to make laws and not to write a Constitution for the people.They hold that the issues involved require an assembly of representatives of the people with a special mandate to discuss fresh terms of engagement for the different peoples and zones of the country. For this set of Nigerians, everything requires a revisit, to demand a fresh commitment and mandate of the various groups and people for a new Nigeria.The political class is not set to upset the cart, may be not yet. The House of Representatives has a separate committee on how to amend the Constitution. Members held a four-day retreat in Port Harcourt recently and promised to make the process open and participatory.The Senate is holding a retreat now, with a promise to give serious attention to clauses in the Constitution dealing with indigene-residency, fiscal federalism and local government reforms. Some of its members also want to create new states.At the end of the day, the Federal Government bills will be tabled in the National Assembly, before the State assemblies are required to affirm or reject the new clauses.Hopefully, an updated Constitution will materialise in the life of the 7th legislative assembly. Hopefully, too, it will address the fresh and old challenges that threaten to abort the federation.
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