NASS to complete fresh Constitution amendment in four weeks

MEMBERS of the National Assembly yesterday began the processes for the amendment of the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act 2010 as requested by President Goodluck Jonathan.

In fact, the Bill to amend the Electoral Act has already passed the first reading at the Senate with Senate spokesman, Ayogu Eze, assuring Nigerians that it would pass the second reading before the end of next week.

According to Eze, who spoke with Senate correspondents, all relevant stakeholders, including the Presidency, governors, speakers of the Houses of Assembly and the leadership of the National Assembly agreed at a meeting at the State House, Abuja, Tuesday night that portions of the 1999 Constitution dealing with timeframe for elections would be altered within the next one month.

The alteration will give the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the latitude to conduct the 2011 general elections and even subsequent elections between January and the end of April.

The process, he said, “is going to be very short. Maybe two weeks, may be three weeks. We have already started the framework to ensure that everybody is brought on board because this is almost like a national emergency. And we are attacking it like an emergency. That is why the President was advised to pull in the governors, the speakers, the leadership of the National Assembly and members of the relevant committees.

“There was a dialogue on Tuesday night and the whole idea is that whatever emerges from here, let it get the same speedy treatment that we are going to give it here. I think there is a commitment on the part of all Nigerians, the governors, speakers of the Houses of Assembly, members of the National Assembly and all stakeholders that we give this two weeks, three weeks and we are done with it, maximum one month, so that we will finish all the work.

“The process is already beginning and we assure you that it won’t last more than a week or two here. And we are ready to play out the ball, and we hope that the state Assemblies will do their part and return it. Luckily, we do not need to start calling stakeholders any more because the stakeholders have met, even before this decision was arrived at. The stakeholders have also met with Mr. President; it is going to be easy and we believe that this will be done expeditiously.”

Eze also revisited the issue of legitimacy of the process of the first alteration of the Constitution with the unabating controversy over whether, indeed, it was altered because the President did not sign.

He said: “The Electoral Act that was signed into law derived its authority from the First Alteration Act to the 1999 Constitution. He (the President) had told those making arguments to keep their arguments because he understood, maybe based on legal advise to him, that the process had fully unravelled. And it is for the same reason that the Attorney-General of the Federation, who is the Chief Law Officer, who had initially expressed his misgivings, did not eventually go to court.

“He did not go to court, and I believe that he was the one among other legal teams of the President that advised him that this process had fully unravelled and that the President should go ahead to sign the Electoral Act, which derived its authority from the alteration of the Constitution.

“So I think we will not take away from Nigerians their right to make arguments or to hold talk shops. Those talk shops can go on, but we modelled our Constitution and our democracy after other constitutions and democracies and the provisions of the American Constitution are the same provisions in our Constitution.

“When the Bill of Rights was passed in 1743 or thereabout, this same argument arose as to whether the President’s assent was required and the American Senate and the (American) Congress in their wisdom said no, that the sovereignty belonged to the people of America and not to the President and that the signature of one man would usurp the sovereignty of everybody. The Supreme Court held the position of the Congress and that is why subsequently, the amendments of the American Constitution never required any controversy and nobody had ever sent it for assent of the President.”

2 Weeks more.