Gbajabiamila: State Assemblies Stalling Amendment to 1999 Constitution

•Says ninth National Assembly may not complete alteration process

•Tell governors to support LG autonomy bill, Lawan appeals to El-Rufai

•Kaduna governor seeks law to establish state police

•Wants national, state legislatures to screen judges before appointment 

•Vows never to retire to senate, explains why

Sunday Aborisade, Udora Orizu and Emameh Gabriel in Abuja 

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, yesterday, accused the state Houses of Assembly of obstructing the process of amendment to the 1999 Constitution. Gbajabiamila said the ninth National Assembly might not be able to complete the on-going amendment process before the expiration of its term. He spoke in Abuja at the Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture 2022 organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS).

President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, for his part, urged the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, to prevail on his colleague-governors to encourage their respective Houses of Assembly to support local government autonomy and promptly transmit back to the National Assembly their responses on the bills sent to them on constitution amendment.

But El-Rufai appealed to the National Assembly to enact laws that would lead to the creation of state police, among others. He also advocated legislative screening for federal and state judges.

The Kaduna State governor dismissed insinuations that he might retire to the senate, like many of his colleagues, saying the legislature is one place he knows he can never function properly.

Gbajabiamila, in his paper, titled, “Delivering on our contract with Nigeria: Implementing the Legislative Agenda of the ninth House of Representatives – Progress, Challenges and Way Forward,” highlighted major challenges to the constitution amendment.

He lamented that many state assemblies had yet to legislate on the 44 bills aimed at amending critical aspects of the 1999 Constitution, which was sent to them by the National Assembly since March.

The leadership of the Ninth Assembly, at the beginning of the current legislative session in 2019, earmarked a whopping N1 billion for its ad hoc committee in the two chambers to carry out a comprehensive review of some controversial aspects of the 1999 Constitution.

The process, however, required the endorsement of not less than two-thirds of the 36 state Houses of Assembly to sail through. And far less than half of the 36 state assemblies were believed to have so far transmitted their responses back to the National Assembly.

Gbajabiamila regretted that the Houses of Assembly were frustrating the efforts of the federal lawmakers to pass the amendments to the constitution before the Ninth Assembly ends its tenure in the second week of June next year.

He stated, “That process now seems to have stalled in the state assemblies. As it is today, it is doubtful that the current constitutional amendment effort will conclude before the expiration of this legislative term.

“Despite broad national agreement on the need for reform, the potential for achievement can rise or fall, based on differences in expectations of the context, pace, and direction of the specific proposals.

“The success or failure of every significant governance initiative depends on the extent to which the objective is a shared priority of the different arms of government and, in some cases, of the state governments.

“Several of the commitments in the legislative agenda require amendments to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to achieve them.

“If you took a poll in this room now about the importance and need for substantive reforms to our nation’s constitution, I am sure the poll would return an overwhelming majority in favour. The National Assembly has passed a raft of amendments to the constitution and advanced them to the states as required.”

Senate president lobbies El-Rufai to prevail on colleagues

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, while declaring open the Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture 2022, urged El-Rufai to prevail on his colleagues to encourage their state Houses of Assembly to transmit back to the National Assembly their responses on the constitution amendment bills sent to them.

Lawan said, “We will task you to lobby for us. We have sent (to the states) the outcome of our constitution review and we are yet to receive all from the states.

“So, we should be able to wind up this process by getting responses from the state Houses of Assembly. Even if it is one month left, we have the capacity, working together, to ensure that we pass some of the legislations that are required in a very expeditious manner.

“Lobby your governor colleagues, because I can see that you do that very well.”

El-Rufai wants National Assembly to make law on state police

The Kaduna State governor, who was the chairman of the occasion, urged the National Assembly to work on pieces of legislation that would lead to the creation of state police, among others. He also advocated legislative screening for federal and state judges.

According to El-Rufai, “It is supposed to check excesses of the executive as well as the judiciary. That is why it is the legislature only that can remove the chief justice or the chief judge of a state, indeed, and other federal deputies, even the appointment of ordinary judges, has to be confirmed by the legislature.

“This is something that I recommend actually that we introduce as a constitutional amendment so that all senior judges, judges of superior court of record should be subject to confirmation by the state House of Assembly or the National Assembly, as the case may be.”

The governor said he would not retire to the senate after his tenure, unlike many of his colleagues.

He stated, “I know that many of my governors retire to the senate, but I can assure you that I will never retire to the legislature.

“So, I really, really greatly respect those that are in the legislature and manage to make it function. Being here is also an opportunity to learn and remedy my personal defects, because the legislature is one branch of government that I know I can never function in.”

On the issue of state police, El-Rufai said, “First, I think we are all clear now that the current policing system is broken and doesn’t work for Nigeria. Nigeria is the only federation in the world with one centralised police system.

“I think this National Assembly has the capacity to enact the state and community policing system that prevents the abuses of the past and takes into account the challenges of the present.”

State Assembly Autonomy: Senate Deputy Chief Whip Urges Citizens to Rise against Governors

Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate and senator for Niger North Senatorial District, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, called on Nigerians, especially the youth, to question the tendency of state governors to keep the Houses of Assembly at their mercy. Abdullahi made the appeal yesterday in Abuja, at the concluding session of a 10- day internship programme organised by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) for youths.

The former spokesperson of the eighth senate also appealed to Nigerians to end the attacks on the National Assembly, saying it is an act targeted at the only democratic institution keeping the executive in check.

He said the recent revelation by the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, on the 13 per cent derivation refund to oil producing states was not supposed to be a surprise to Nigerians, “if state Houses of Assembly are independent.”

Abdullahi said in spite of efforts by the National Assembly to ensure that state assemblies were independent of the executive, Nigerians had focused their criticism on the National Assembly, rather than face the state governors, who had deliberately refused to provide the atmosphere that would guarantee independence for the state legislatures as well as local governments in the country.

He said, “If not for the National Assembly and its institutions, the state Houses of Assembly are rubber stamps. If you say rubber stamp, it is an understatement. They are worse than rubber-stamp. And who is responsible?

“Collectively, all of us, because they are not independent. We have been battling to make them independent and Nigerians never supported us.

“I have not seen Nigerians asking or coming out and saying to their governors, ‘we own this, it belongs to us, give it to us.’ We did our own part.

“And it’s the same thing with the local government. They are not independent. I think we must get our act together. Whatever institution of democracy we have, Nigerians must rise together to defend it. If you are condemning the National Assembly, you are weakening them and strengthening other people.

“And that is why, today, the almighty governors of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are alpha and omega of our democracy. They make or mar, they do and undo, but I have never heard anybody getting up or rising up to question them.”

Abdullahi rejected the widespread impression that the Nigerian National Assembly members were the highest paid in the world.

He said, “People will say these people are highly paid. They are the most expensive politicians in the world. Which is not true. The facts are there. It is easy to cast aspersion on anybody but is it also easy to conclude that everybody is bad?

“I believe that the institution of our democracy represented by the National Assembly is sacred and we must respect it. If we don’t respect it, you will weaken it down.

“No matter how imperfect the National Assembly is, if you attack it, it is not the people you are attacking, it is the institution that you are attacking. And when you weaken the institution, honestly, you are heading back to dictatorship.”