Africcon Blogspot Report: The Nigerian Senate yesterday rejected the single six-year tenure proposed for the president and 36 state governors, just as the federal lawmakers also turned down a proposal to grant the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) a mayoral status.
Reports Says; The upper house also rejected amended clauses seeking direct payment (first-line charge) to local governments from the country’s Consolidated Revenue Fund, separation of the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and state equivalents from the Office of the Minister of Justice and Commissioner for Justice at state levels.
Senators voted on 31 constitution amendment clauses recommended by its committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution after concluding the debate on the report last week.
The lawmakers rejected direct funding for the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice.
The auditor-general of the federation, state assemblies, state independent electoral commissions, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission and National Human Rights Commission are to benefit from the first-line charge going by Senate votes.
Also, proposals to empower the attorney-general of states to direct investigations in certain cases, removing the word “Force” from the Nigeria Police Force, removal of some listed Acts of the National Assembly from the constitution (National Youth Service Corps Decree 1973, Public Complaints Commission Act, National Securities Agencies Act and Land Use Act) were all rejected.
However, Senators voted for a recommendation seeking life pension for principal officers of the National Assembly.
The alteration of Section 84 (new subsection 5a) of the constitution (clause 8) reads: “Any person who has held office as President or Deputy President of the Senate, Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, shall be entitled to pension for life at a rate equivalent to the annual salary of the incumbent President or Deputy President of the Senate, Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
On assent to bills, the Senate voted that where the president neither signifies that he assents or that he withholds assent, a bill shall at the expiration of 30 days become law.
Again, the senators approved a recommendation that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) shall, within six months of the receipt of the draft constitution, cause a referendum to be conducted to approve the draft constitution, by implication barring the president from a possible assent or veto as the case may be.
Amended clause on gender equity (Section 26(2) (a) is altered by substituting the word “woman” with the word “person”; child rights/protection and protection of people with disability were approved and passed by the lawmakers.
Prisons, pension, labour, railway and stamp duties were moved from the exclusive legislative lists to the concurrent list while aviation remained on the executive list. Arbitration, environment, health care, agriculture and youths are also on the concurrent legislative list.
At the conclusion of the voting, Senate president David Mark described the voting as historic: “Today is a historic day in the history of democracy in this country. We have voted in what we believe and and we voted for those issues that we think will ensure that democracy continues to mature and take a firm root in this country… Whatever emotions or sentiments people had to express we put them in practical terms.”
We are not against any political officeholder - Tambuwal
As the House of Representatives yesterday began clause-by-clause consideration of the report of the ad-hoc Committee on Constitution Amendment for the alteration of the 1999 Constitution, speaker of the House Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has made a categorical statement against views that the House is targeting any political officeholder in the country.
Speaking while setting the stage for the consideration of the constitution amendment report after the chairman of the committee, deputy speaker Hon. Emeka Ihedioha gave a synopsis of the document yesterday, he stated that there was no personal agenda in the process and the outcome of the whole exercise.
He said: “I want to remind Nigerians that what we have done in the House of Representatives and the resolution we have before us is not the personal opinion but the aggregate opinion from our constituents on all the issues.
“Individually, we don’t have any issues whatsoever [about any] political officeholder in this country.”
Tambuwal also responded to comments that the procedure adopted by the House should have been done in such a way that the opinion gathered at the People’s Public Session is subjected to a referendum, saying the constitution does not provide for the use of a referendum in amending it.
Declaring that the House would not go outside constitution provisions for the process, the speaker said, “The constitution has in itself prescribed the procedure with which the constitution can be amended. We are not at liberty to go outside the provision of the constitution....we will proceed with the wishes of our constituents.”
Urging his colleagues to uphold the wishes of their constituents as expressed in the People’s Public Session result, he said, “If your constituents agree and support, even if your political leaders are not in support, go with the wishes of your constituents. We must not and should not vote in consideration of our personal wishes but for the wishes of our constituents because they are the ones that brought you here.”
However, the session, which was basically one that would allow the members go through the recommendations clause by clause in preparation for voting on another scheduled date, was deferred to hold today after Hon. Bitrus Kaze noted that the procedure being adopted was against the usual one that the House uses.
Kaze’s objection, coupled with other observations by some lawmakers that they had not all studied the document, led to the postponement.
Budget: Reps, Okonjo- Iweala in war-of-words
Members of the House joint committee on Finance, Appropriation and Legislative Compliance yesterday engaged the minister of finance and coordinating minister for the economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on the status of constituency projects in the 2013 budget..
The minister, who made her presentation to the committee on the status of the 2013 budget as it relates to releases, was quick to say the economy was doing well. She said the budget has achieved a 67 per cent utilisation of funds released in the first and second quarter of the year for capital projects.
The minister also used the forum to address reports that she allegedly said the economy would collapse if the N32 billion moved from the budget as proposed by the executive by the National Assembly to other areas was not returned in the current supplementary budget before the National Assembly, saying the reports were false.
Flanked by the accountant-general of the federation, Mr Jonah Otunla, and the director-general of the Budget Office, Mr Bright Okogun, the minister said N400 billion has been released in the first quarter of 2013 and N200 billion for the second quarter. “Of the 600 billion, the amount released was N585. 717 billion and a utilization of 67 per cent,” she said.
According to her, the biggest challenge before the implementation of the budget is the quantity shock from loss of crude oil running into about 400, 000 barrels per day, which culminates to about N160 billion per month.
Okonjo-Iweala said the discovery of shale oil in the United States and shortfall in revenue from customs duties due to reduced import of domestically produced goods like rice has also affected revenue generation and, in the long run, implementation of the budget.
When confronted by Hon. Yakubu Dogara on the grouse by the lawmakers about the constitutionality of the Excess Crude Account, the minister appealed to the committee to help governors and other stakeholders accept the proposal for the ECA to be moved to the Sovereign Wealth Fund duly established by the National Assembly under the legal title of Stabilisation Fund.
According to her, previous attempts to make them understand and accept the proposal had been rejected.
Speaking on constituency projects, she said N50 billion had been released in two tranches, April N30 billion and June N20 billion, while adding that all projects under constituency projects would be supervised by the Ministry of Special Duties as part of President Goodluck Jonathan’s effort to ensure that the projects are given priority.
“We opened an account and N30bn has been released. Second release was N20 billion. Out N100 billion, N50 billion has been released. This fund is sitting in a special account in CBN for contractors to use when they have received certification,” she said.
The lawmakers, who didn’t seem convinced, asked for proof of the releases and were furnished with documents by the minister and her team.
