Constitution Reviw: House, Aondoakaa Disagree on Procedure

onstitution Review: House, Aondoakaa Disagree on Procedure



As the public hearing on the review of the 1999 Constitution kicked off at the House of Representatives yesterday, Deputy Speaker Usman Nafada and Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Michael Aondoakaa disagreed on the procedure to be adopted in handling bills sent to the National Assembly on the exercise.
The atmosphere became momentarily charged as Aondoakaa sought to give direction to the whole exercise from the point of view of the Executive arm of government.
But the lawmakers spurned his overtures and promptly asked him to respect the principle of separation of powers and allow the Legislature to pilot the process on its own terms and at its own pace.
The crossfire came as the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Maurice Iwu, vehemently opposed the proposed unbundling of INEC and the window to allow political parties to benefit from offshore funds.
Iwu exonerated INEC from the ills associated with elections in the country, insisting that the trouble was in the domain of the politicians and political parties which, he said, lacked internal democracy.
Aondoakaa, had in his presentation, asked the lawmakers to give priority to the bill for an Act to alter the provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and for other matters connected thereto.
The bill seeks to amend the 1999 Constitution to, among other things, provide for independent candidates during elections, prohibit defection by elected persons and guarantee the funding of INEC in line with the Electoral Reforms 2009.
It also seeks to insulate the appointment of members of INEC from the general qualification criteria of other executive bodies and exclude the independent candidate from the general rule that prohibits an association other than a political party from canvassing for votes during elections.
The Attorney-General observed that the bill was not only very crucial, but a necessary foundation to every other amendment and should be treated first.
He said it was in the thinking of the Executive that Nigeria embraces the idea of independent candidacy in its elections to ensure that persons who could not find space within the ranks of the 54 existing political parties could still find political expression and space to contribute to national development.
He also recommended that the bill to amend the INEC Act be considered only after the bill stripping INEC of certain powers and unbundling of the electoral body had been treated.
According to him, the law seeking to create new bodies out of INEC could not be handled until the extra powers were first taken away from the electoral body.
He canvassed the position of the Executive on the essence of having a truly independent electoral umpire, adding that once INEC was made to draw all its funds directly from the Consolidate Revenue Fund of the federation, the electoral body would have been on its way to the desired independence.
He said the Executive envisaged that the new legislation would not only bring financial autonomy to INEC but would grant it freedom from all perceived partisanship and executive manipulations.
On the third phase, Aondoakaa said the lawmakers were expected to tackle the bill seeking to amend some sections of the Police Act to give the Nigeria Police specific duties during elections. He stated that under the current regime, policemen have always claimed that the Police Act restricts their role during elections to that of onlookers, stressing that the new law would change that posture and challenge the police to respond to acts of violence and brigandage during elections.
Apparently not impressed with the subtle attempt to dictate the pace of the Constitution Review, Deputy Speaker Nafada told Aondoakaa that the House though fully committed to the constitution review had chosen to handle all the bills simultaneously.
�We have decided at the House that we will take all the bills at once because time is of essence in this matter. Nigerians are in dire need of electoral reforms. We want credible elections because without it, there will be no good governance and that is why the House is handling all the bills sent to us simultaneously. We have divided the job amongst six committees headed by principal officers of the House,� Nafada said.According to him, the House concedes to the wisdom of the Executive in introducing the bills on electoral reforms, but would want to be given a free hand to carry out its legislative functions.
He assured the audience that the House would in addition to the six bills sent to it; entertain memoranda on all constitutional issues agitating the minds of Nigerians.
Meanwhile, the INEC boss, Iwu, faced a hostile audience at the public hearing when he said that though the unbundling of INEC might appear attractive to some people, the proposal might be counter-productive.
�On the contrary, we think it is counterproductive as it increases the bureaucracy in the process without much commensurable benefit. Moreover, some of the institutional reforms in INEC, such as decentralisation of operations, the establishment of the Electoral Institute, National Advisory Committee on Delimitation of Constituencies and the proposed expansion of the membership of Election Monitoring and Observation Board to include representatives of civil society groups and political parties have made the suggested unbundling really superfluous� he said.
He decried the excessive use of money in Nigerian politics and disclosed that much of these funds were often deployed by politicians to undermine the system including the INEC.
He also expressed opposition to the clause in the proposed law which seeks to empower political parties to receive and retain funds from abroad.