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| Wednesday, September 28, 2011 |
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| Nnamani, Agbakoba, Others Mull over Constitutional Amendment |
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| It was a day of mixed reactions yesterday, as some eminent Nigerians converged on Lagos, to deliberate on the proposed amendment of the 1999 Constitution as well as the process of drafting a new and strong constitution could be achieved. »
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It was a day of mixed reactions yesterday, as some eminent Nigerians converged on Lagos, to deliberate on the proposed amendment of the 1999 Constitution as well as the process of drafting a new and strong constitution could be achieved.
The event was the third memorial lecture of former Attorney-General of the Federation, late Justice Augustine Nnamani, at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos.
The lecture titled: “Setting the Agenda for a New Nigeria: Challenges of the Constitution” witnessed some eminent Nigerians agreeing on the need to tinker the nation’s ground norm as it affects the constitution, while others differed on the approach to be applied.
Among those who spoke at lecture, were the former senate President, Ken Nnamani; Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha; former Chief Judge of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Muhammed Uwais; former President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), a Lagos–based Senior Advocate of Nigeria and commercial law expert, Dr. Konyisola Ajayi, amongs others.
While Nnamani decried incessant tinkering of the nation’s constitution, saying: “It may be reduced to a minute book”, Agbakoba suggested a piecemeal approach to address fundamental issues in the constitution.
Speaking at the occasion, Nnamani queried the number of times Nigeria needed to amend the constitution, stressing that the National Assembly, which swore to abide by the constitution could not give the country a brand new constitution.
According to him, “If we form a habit of amending our constitution regularly, then it will be reduced to a minutes book.”
The National Assembly, he said should concentrate more on policies that would bring development to the country if we were to attain the vision 20:2020.
Nnamani said the issue of incessant agitation for state creation would not only rob the country of development but it would prevent it from achieving the vision 20:2020. He, therefore, called for the reduction of the number of states in the country so as to conserve money for development.
“Some of the present states are not better than a local government. Industrialised countries like Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia, which we are aspiring to be like do not get their development by proliferation of states. We cannot attain development by high recurrent expenditure and reduced capital expenditure, the way we are spending our national revenue,” he said.
He said it was good to amend the constitution, especially some important gray areas but it should not be frequent. “If we want a brand new constitution, we should have a Constituent Assembly, if we keep agitating that some sections of the constitution are not right, we will not get any result,” he said.
He noted that part of the challenges in the country was government’s inability to implement the constitution.
“What we need to do is the implementation of the constitution. Our challenge is to channel our gifts to productive areas and not to spend all the times blaming the constitution.
“We should work inward to produce and exports things outside oil, transformation involved fundamental change, the issue of constitutional amendment should take a one-time deep thought, not creating offices that does not exist,” he said.
On his part, Uwais said the nation was still not out of the woods as there were very important constitutional issues yet to be resolved.
While corroborating Nnamani’s view on the process of the constitutional amendment, Uwais said, “we should not always be dwelling on the amendment of the constitution but aim towards getting a new and better constitution.
The means I do not know yet.” Also, Ihedioha, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Cyril Maduabum, said Nigerians should be allowed to determine their own constitution.
He said the lower House had already constituted a 51-member Constitutional Review Committee with the aim to amending the constitution.
He said the House would continue to use the piecemeal approach since it has worked so far resulting to the tinkering of the constitution twice.
In his lecture, Agabakoba who was represented by Krushev Ekwueme said Nigeria need to work on a strong constitution.
He said a strong constitution is the pillars upon which the federation stands. “It is important to produce a constitution that will address divers interests in the country based on the fault-line of religion, ethnicity and language.”
There were however some differences on the country can go about getting a new and strong constitution. While some viewed that a one-time approach, Agbakoba recommended that a piecemeal process should be adopted.
“Give the state powers to control some mineral resources while the Federal Government should continue to control oil. The states should also be allowed to control airports and others,” he said.
Ajayi, who was also represented by Mr. Victor Nwakasi, faulted the power sharing formula of the 1999 Constitution.
According to him, “The power sharing formula of the 1999 Constitution gives indication that the states are appendage to the Federal Government.”
He said the states should be given independent as it were in the United States of America and Canada.
Ajayi also decried high cost of governance in the country.
He noted that there are too many political offices and office holders “high cost of governance has not translated to good governance in the country but rather it has made governance to become juicy.”
He also suggested that the prosecution powers of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practice and Other Related Offences (ICPC) and other corruption prosecution agencies should be strengthen.
Ajayi shares similar view with Nnamani that it is not the business of the National Assembly to write new constitution for the country. “Nigeria requires a new body to give us constitution,” he said. |
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