Between July 19 and 21, the Senate Committee on Constitution Review (SCCR) organised a retreat for its members and stakeholders in Asaba, Delta State, to cross-check ideas with constitutional experts, professional bodies, as well as political actors. Group Politics Editor, Taiwo Adisa, who monitored the retreat, presents the highlights.THE Senate can be said to be on the march again in it its current bid to review and proposed amendments to the Nigerian Constitution, owing to the fact that a number of known faces in the last exercise, which terminated in the first amendment to the Nigerian Constitution, are still part of the current exercise. The chairman of the committee remains Senator Ike Ekweremadu, the Deputy President of the Senate, who had equally chaired the National Assembly's Joint Committee on Constitution Review (JCCR) before its dissolution in 2009. The man who is to provide the final shield for the committee, Senate President David Mark, is also not new to the exercise. He was at the helm of affairs when the National Assembly scaled through with the first amendment to the constitution in 2010. Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, is also a known face in the last exercise, just like a number of other senators. It therefore presupposes that the lawmakers have their job cut out for them, with an inkling of a possibility of an easy ride. But such a conclusion can hardly come through in politics. The 2010 exercise scaled through due to experience and dexterity on the part of Senators Mark and Ekweremadu. Politics had practically drowned the exercise following the insinuation by some loyalists of the then President Umaru Yar'Adua that the Senate President would steal the shine if the exercise was allowed to go through. A number of impediments were then placed on the way. First, members of the House of Representatives who were members of JCCR raised issues of parity between them and senators. They claimed that while the chairman of the JCCR should be the Deputy Senate President, the vice chairman position, which is allotted to the Deputy Speaker, should be redesigned as co-chairman, something that has never happened in legislative parlance. Usually, wherever the Senate and the House hold joint sessions, the Senate President presides and in his absence, the Speaker presides. The same applies to joint sittings on bills and appropriation laws. The Senate Committee Chairman heads the committee while the House Committee chairman is deputy. It was later discovered that those behind the recalcitrant posture from the House of Representatives were playing to a tune emanating from loyalists of the late President Yar'Adua, who believed that the exercise should not go ahead. Somehow, Mark and Ekweremadu read between the lines and they agreed that each of the chambers should manage its constitution review committee while the two would meet at the tail end of the exercise to harmonise positions. The decision also ensured that funds allocated to constitution review in the budget were shared equally. The House members could no longer drag the process when they discovered that the Senate was moving faster than envisaged. But a major concession that paved the way for the passage of the exercise was the decision of the Senate Committee, then led by Ekweremadu, to drop all contentious constitutional matters and concentrate on issues that affect conduct of elections. The bid then was termed incremental process and it was seen as something the power brokers at the Presidential Villa could relate with. With the passage of the first amendment came further agitations that the Nigerian Constitution needs fundamental restructuring. That was expected, since the first amendment was merely a clever way of avoiding a total breakdown of the process in view of political engineering against it. There were consistent clamour for restructuring, both from the North and the South zones of the country. Some have insisted on the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC). The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) and the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) have also clamoured for constitutional changes which bother on restructuring of the polity. The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)and other political actors have clamoured for changes in the constitution to ensure judicial freedom and access to justice, as well as fiscal federalism that would guarantee competition in the economy. There has also been renewed bid for resource control in the South-South, with some elements from the South-West hammering on true federalism. The seventh National Assembly therefore could not do anything other than to institute the process of constitution amendment. Though the Senate Committee on Constitution Review (SCCR) was in place shortly after the inauguration of the session in 2011, the work could actually not be kick-started until the 2012 budget came into force. This is because there was no budgetary provision for the exercise in 2011. Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ekweremadu told Nigerians in Asaba that no fewer than 56 requests for state creation have been received at the Senate and that the committee has identified 16 critical areas of the constitution for amendment, based on the frequency of occurrence in national discourse as well as reports gleaned from the last review exercise, which was forced to expunge such details due to political reasons. Ekweremadu, who stated that the SCCR has revisited the report of the last committee to sift matters requiring immediate attention, declared that the committee highlighted some of the critical issues, as including the following: 1. Devolution of powers ' It is expressed that the legislative list in our constitution is skewed in favor of the Federal Government and needs to be revisited, to give our constitution a true Federal character. 2. Creation of more states ' Requests for the creation of more states to address obvious injustices and imbalances of the past, has persisted. We are minded to discuss it. 3. Recognition of the six geo-political zones in the constitution 4. Role for traditional rulers ' It is being suggested that the six geo-political structure and roles for our traditional rulers should both be expressed in our constitution. 5. Local government - The issue of local government creation, the place of local government in the federal arrangement, the functions and powers of local government are yet to be settled. 6. Extracting the following from the constitution: (a) Land Use Act (b) NYSC Act and (c) Code of Conduct. These laws are part of our constitution. Amending any of them requires the same cumbersome procedure as amending any provision of the constitution. Hence, no amendment has been made to any of them since they were enacted, in spite of the present realities that recommend each of them for an aupdate, review or amendment. It is being suggested that taking them out of the constitution will create some flexibility in amending them in accordance with the dynamics of the society. 7. Fiscal Federalism ' the fiscal relationship that will drive competition and yet take care of all the component unit of our Federation needs to be worked out. 8. Amendment of provisions relating to amendment of the constitution; state creation and boundary adjustment ' to remove ambiguities. 9. Immunity Clause ' the issue of immunity from criminal prosecution and civil proceedings for the President, Vice President, governors and their deputies has been a subject of intense debate and needs to be resolved this time. 10. Nigeria Police ' Is the police force as presently structured meeting the challenges of our internal security' If not; why' Do we need state and local government police as was the case prior to 1966' If so how do we work it out to address the fears of those who are opposed to it' 11. Judiciary ' what constitutional reforms do we put in place to ensure the free flow of the rivers of justice in Nigeria' 12. Executive ' Do we revisit the term element of our executive offices' Single term or multiple terms' What of the system of Government; Presidential or Parliamentary' What of a hybrid' 13. Rotation of offices ' Will a constitutional provision of rotation, help to stabilise the country and its component units' 14. Genders and special group ' Does our women, the physically challenged and any other special group requires constitutional protection or advantage' 15. Mayoral status for the Federal Capital Territory Administration ' As the case in similar cities all over the world, will Abuja be better off with a mayoral system Instead of a semi state' 16. Residency and indigene provisions ' Does what we have in Section 42 of our constitution sufficiently guaranty equality of opportunity to all Nigerians wherever they reside irrespective of their tribe, language, religion, sex and state of origin. The Senate number two man stated that his committee would remain open and transparent in the process of ensuring a thorough and enduring amendment of the constitution. He said: 'I wish to reassure Nigerians that we will be open and true to them. We have no position on any issues except those taken by the Nigerian people through their inputs, whether through their memoranda, contributions at public hearings and their elected representatives at both the National and state Assemblies. We bear no allegiance to any, except that which we owe to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We have no interest to protect, except that of the generality of the Nigerian people and posterity. We will be driven by the force of superior argument and public will. What we owe our people is leadership, legislative due process, transparency, inclusivity and popular participation. We want to ensure that the generality of Nigerians own and drive the process to be able to take full responsibility of the eventual outcome.' President of the Senate, Senator Mark, who would eventually preside over the final sessions of the amendment process, told Nigerians at the retreat that the Senate had chosen to undertake a fundamental restructuring of the constitution. He said that the lawmakers carefully chose Asaba as venue of the retreat because the activities of the Royal Niger Company (RNC), which eventually led to the unification of the Northern and Southern Protectorates of the territory known as Nigeria today, started in Asaba. He said that it was imperative that when a wholesome restructuring of the polity is being contemplated, the actors should ordinarily go back to the roots. Mark said that senators do not harbour any preconceived idea about the exercise and urged all Nigerians to freely participate. He also highlights a number of areas demanding critical examination by the committee, while arguing carving a constitutional role for traditional rulers should also be a derivative of the ongoing process. According to him, it appears in recent months that there is an emerging consensus on the desirability of certain issues in the amendment process. He listed such issues as including: devolution of powers; fiscal federalism; concept of federating units; system of local government administration, including funding, creation and autonomy; Judicial reforms; creation of states; national security ' terrorism and insurgency; boundary adjustment; further fine-tuning of the electoral system; state police; citizenship versus indigene ship; role of traditional rulers and the prisons. Mark further said: 'As the Senate braces for this phase of constitution review, it is important to bear in mind that a constitution, being the fundamental law, or the ground norm, must define, with imagination, the terms of the social contract. It must guarantee fundamental rights and civil liberties, and the mechanisms for their enforcement.' He however insisted that constitutional changes alone cannot take Nigeria to the Promised Land, adding that there must be attitudinal changes among citizens to ensure that laws are not only made but obeyed. Speakers of the state Houses of Assembly were represented by the Speaker of Enugu State Assembly, Honourable Eugene Odo, who said that the Speakers had set up a technical committee on constitution review which he is a member and that the committee had taken some positions. He said that while the technical committee was still meeting, the Speakers were concerned about autonomy for state legislatures, indigene ship and citizenship, as well as devolution of powers. According to him, it is the wish of the Speakers that all state Houses of Assembly should be autonomous and independent of executive or judicial control. Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, who is also the Chairman, Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), premised his presentation on the need to know. He said that the governors needed to know why devolution of powers is not possible in Nigeria and what the true parameters of governance are. He also stated that state police is a paramount demand of the governors, adding that Nigeria remains the only federal state where security was centrally handled. He also insisted that local governments cannot be seen as federating units and asked the National Assembly to address the issue of local government once and for all. Governor Amaechi also questioned why the federal authorities are only interested in legislating for the control of oil resources, while leaving other solid minerals at the control of host communities. According to him, the country should legislate on all resources for the good of all Nigerians. Host governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, who presented a paper at the retreat said that the people of Niger Delta are concerned about resource management and control, adding that the a situation where the people of Niger Delta would be left with nothing after oil resources must have been drained should not be allowed to happen. The governor stated that the state is particularly concerned about the enthronement of true federalism and fiscal federalism through the ongoing amendment. According to him the 1999 Constitution, which eroded the gains of the 1960 Constitution, has left the states of Niger Delta prostrate as the resources are being drained while the people are entitled to peanuts. He stated that 50 per cent of the resources generated from the region should be retained by the people such that the federation can retain the balance. Uduaghan said: 'Fiscal federalism is about allocation of resources to secure the autonomy of the respective federating units as well as the central government in a true federation. Needless to say that the principle of fiscal federalism underlying the 1999 Constitution is inequitable and flawed in that it has left the states of the Niger Delta prostrate. They now appear, as said earlier, to be appendages of the Federal Government who they go cap-in-hand to seek help from. 'As a consequence, the rich gains of a healthy federal competition which endured under the 1960 Constitution have been severely eroded. Worse still, the nationalisation of the natural resources of State and Communities particularly the Niger Delta to support the national economy is too burdensome, if not oppressive. This is particularly so in view of the expropriator provisions of the constitution and other pieces of legislation confiscating, as it were, these resources without compensation and corresponding allocation of the proceeds to them to address the adverse impacts of oil exploration on the people and environment for the past 40 to 50 years.' The governor submitted that Section 162(1) and (10) should be redefined in the new constitution to exclude derivation from natural resources, while Section 162(2) of the 1999 Constitution should be expunged to vest control over natural resources on the federating units. He said that the central government can in turn tax the revenue accruable to the federating units and submitted: 'Section 162(1) and (10) should be defined to exclude income or derivation to the Government of the Federation accruing from natural resources and expunge the proviso to Section 162(2) of the constitution to secure full control of the natural resources for the federating states in return for which the Federal Government can derive appropriate tax and royalties.' In the alternative, the governor said that the current derivation principle should be raised from 13percent to not less than 50 per cent. A number of papers dwelt on the specific issues that have generated from the 13 years of the current constitution and a number of experts, including Professor Ellias Agu, Mr Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) and the former Chief Justice of the Federation (CJN), Justice Mohammed Uwais, were on hand to lead debates at the different sections. It promises to be an interesting process as the senators are soon to move into the zones to collate memoranda and listen to Nigerians critique their ground norm. It is only a dispassionate approach, as promised by the major actors, that would however guarantee an enduring amendment at the end of the day.
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