Politics

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Rejection of local government autonomy by the Senate in the ongoing constitution amendment sparks off bitter reactions

|  By Anayo Ezugwu  |  Jul. 29, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT

REACTIONS have continued to trail the on-going constitution amendment by the National Assembly since the Senate adopted some contentious issues in the report submitted to it by the Senate committee on constitution amendment. The review has stirred up a controversy, with many Nigerians questioning the rationale behind the adoption of some of the clauses submitted by the committee despite the call to ignore them.

Political analysts are of the opinion that the amendments are not people-oriented and that the lawmakers left out some clauses that would have deepened democracy and impact positively on the well-being of Nigerians in pursuit of selfish ends. Enyinnaya Onuegbu, an Owerri-based legal practitioner, is not happy with the Senators for killing local government autonomy. He said that, though the senators, the state governors have got what they were looking for, that is to keep on killing democracy at the grassroots.

“The issue of local government autonomy is the most important part of the amendment for us because that is what would bring development to the grassroots. I’m surprised that the Senate did not see the necessity that provision and pass it overwhelmingly. They were rather interested in emoluments, on pension for the principal officers. The essence of local government autonomy is to free them from the state governors and let the third tier of government be developed like the state. So it’s against the expectations of Nigerians. The issue of the autonomy is just like the autonomy lawmakers have taken to free themselves from the clusters of the executive arm of the government. They should also free the local governments from the clutches of the state governors. That is the only way to speed up development in the local government areas. I am against that decision but I know that all hope is not lost. I’m sure the House of Representatives which has proven to be more people-oriented will pass that amendment. In view of all these, I am not surprised because many former governors are in the Senate, so they know what they did when they were governors and they are still perpetuating it,” he said.

On the issue of life pension for the Senate presidents, deputy senate presidents, speakers and deputy speakers of House of Representatives, Onuegbu said that it is a waste of the country’s resources to pay the principal officers of the national Assembly pension. “It’s abnormal because in a dispensation, two to three speakers or senate presidents may emerge, it would be a waste of Nigerian resources to pay such entitlements to them. On the average, every person who becomes a Senate president or Speaker of the House is already a man of riches. I do not support such legislation because it’s anti-people and anti-progress.”

Samson Omodara, a Lagos-based lawyer, said that since the emergence of democracy in Nigeria, the National Assembly has not been serious about providing a people-oriented constitution. He said the parliament should have taken a proactive steps to correct the erroneous preamble to the constitution that says “we the people of Nigeria make this constitution for ourselves,” because the amended constitution is not for the people of the country.

He accused the lawmakers of seeking to amend only sections of the constitution that concern them rather than the governance of the country. “They should go to the nitty gritty of the sections of the constitution that will benefit the people,” he said, adding that the amendment of the constitution should begin from the state assemblies which have more population than the members of the two chambers of the National Assembly.

The Trade Union Congress, TUC, has also criticised the Senate for granting extra powers to the state governments, even when some states are yet to comply with the payment of minimum wages. Bobboi Bala Kaigama, president, TUC, said that such a plan would throw civil services across the federation into more problems. “Trade Union Congress of Nigeria condemns plans by the Senate to devolve more powers to the 36 states of the federation by moving some items including wages from the 68 items contained in the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list to allow state Houses of Assembly to legislate on them. While the Congress is not against the debate and review of the 1999 Constitution, we reiterate that the move will create more industrial crises, especially as some states are yet to implement the new minimum wage of N18, 000 even though President Goodluck Jonathan signed it into law in March 2011. As it stands today, we still have issues with some states over the new wage structure,” he said.

The senators voted to throw out the recommendation of a six-year single term for the president and governors. It also rejected autonomy for local governments as well as the moves to separate the office of the attorney general of the federation from that of the minister of justice. The senate also adopted Section 9 of the draft bill of the amendment, which empowers the National Assembly to make an entirely new constitution for the country. They adopted Section 3A of the draft, which rejected the president’s assent to the amended constitution before taking effect.

The Senate also resolved to amend Section 29 (a) of the constitution which stipulates that a woman shall not be qualified for marriage until she attains 18 years by deleting the age specification from the draft constitution and left the marriage age for women open. The Senate claimed that a woman is deemed to be full of age once she is married irrespective of her age.

The Senate rejected the placement of the AGF’s office on a first line charge but passed the recommendations on the State Independent Electoral Commissions, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, judiciary, Human Rights Commission and state legislatures to be put first line charge. It also recommended that a bill automatically becomes law if the president fails to assent to it after 30 days of its transmission.

The Senators as well rejected a recommendation barring a deputy governor or vice-president, who succeeds his boss on account of death from standing for election, after serving out the tenure of his or her boss. They also overwhelmingly adopted a recommendation that election disputes should be resolved within 180 days and before the swearing in of any purported winner.

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