By Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
The National Assembly has alleged that state governors were using lawmakers in their states to stall the process of amending the Constitution alterations being carried out by the nation’s legislative institution.
Chairman of the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Constitution Review, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, made the allegation at a news conference in Abuja yesterday.
He noted with concern that the Conference of Nigeria Speakers had vowed not to pass the 44 Constitution Review Bills transmitted to them by the National Assembly until the four bills they have proposed are passed.
Omo-Agege, the Deputy President of the Senate, said that he addressed journalists with the understanding and consent of the Deputy President of the House of Representatives, Idris Wase who was on a national assignment, abroad.
He disclosed that only 11 states have so far considered and performed their constitutional role of passing amendments to the constitution.
He lamented that the speakers of state houses of assembly through a letter to the National Assembly joint committee on Constitution review have given four conditions upon which the remaining 25 states will pass the amendments.
He described the letter as the “hands of Esau and voice of Jacob”, saying “state governors are behind the action of the speakers to stall the process.”
He said, “Six months after the transmission of these Bills to State Assemblies, it is most disheartening to inform you that only 11 State Houses of Assembly have demonstrated their independence and loyalty to the. Constitution regarding the 44 bills.
“Twenty-five state Houses of Assembly have yet to consider and vote on these bills.
“So far, only Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Delta, Edo, Kaduna, Katsina, Kogi, Lagos, Ogun, and Osun states have successfully considered, voted on, and forwarded their resolutions on the 44 bills to the National Assembly.
“More worrisome is that while we are still expecting the receipt of the resolutions of the remaining Houses of Assembly, we received a letter from the Conference of Speakers of State Assemblies informing the National Assembly that the remaining states will not act on the 44 Bills unless the National Assembly passes four new Bills they have proposed in the letter.
“The Bills they propose seek to amend the Constitution to Establish State Police; Establish State Judicial Council;
Streamline the procedure for removing Presiding Officers of State Houses of Assembly; and, Institutionalise Legislative Bureaucracy in the Constitution.”
Defending the parliament, however, Omo-Agege said the National Assembly was in no way averse to acting on any proposed Bill or memoranda appropriately tabled before it, “at any time in its life.”
He said, “However, it is legally inappropriate for the Conference of Speakers to use the four Bills as a quid pro quo to act on the 44 Bills the National Assembly 44 Bills transmitted.
“It is clear, and we cannot overstate, that this letter is not in keeping with the obligation the Constitution has placed on them regarding the Constitutional amendment.”
Omo-Agege said the National Assembly would not go to the governors over the matter because it was constitutionally meant to relate only to the state parliaments.
He said, “The competition is clear as to whose responsibility it is to alter the process. It is a process and it begins with the people and thereafter members of the national assembly.
“Once we play that part it goes to the state houses of assembly. And the constitution says of the 36, we need the concurrence of 24 of them. It does not end there.
“If there are bills there that you are not comfortable with, vote it down, but to hold it hostage, you are holding the entire exercise hostage, holding the entire country hostage and that is what we are against.
“We thought it is right that the Nigerian people through the media understand who is holding this hostage at this particular time. Mr President is waiting in the event we receive the favourable transmission from them to either sign or not sign.”
Omo-Agege insisted that the process of the amendment has not died despite the governors’ unfriendly attitude towards it.
He said, “The process is not dead. We just felt having played our role, we must let you know where we are at the moment. We still have a few months left to have them do the right thing. It is not just about the 44 bills.
“Of the 44 the most fundamental to a lot of us is the local government autonomy. Even if they shoot down every other bill as not being important to them.
“At least this is so fundamental. Fundamental to the extent that even the president took it upon himself as an executive to seek to enforce the content of these bills and of course rightly the Supreme Court shut it down, saying no, Mr President your intentions may be good, but this can only be achieved through a constitutional amendment exercise.
“Let me say this, as a student of the constitution, we all know who the stakeholders are concerning the constitutional amendment exercise.
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“I am not so sure there is anywhere responsibility is given to governors. It is the state houses of assembly, the national assembly, and the president.
“Be that as it may, this exercise began at the 12 centres, and there we reached out to the governors to intimate them about the commencement of this exercise and to have them participate.
“In most instances, not only did they declare open, the sessions in their respective centres, and in centres where they did not come they sent in their representatives and their input.
“I read a couple of days ago an interview by the immediate past governor of Ekiti, Fayemi, stating the position of the governors and how Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State has presented the party position to the party and also to the national assembly.
“There is a process and Governor Fayemi is a scholar, I respect him so much, he knows the process. He knows how it works. We know where he stands on most of these issues and in due respect those positions.
“Unfortunately here we do not have monarchs. Everyone here has a vote, either here on the floor or at the committee level. No one imposes his will on the other, Omo-Agege,” he added.
Present at the briefing were the Senate Leader, Senator Abdullahi Gobir, Chief Whip, Senator Orji Kalu, Deputy Chief Whip, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, and Minority Whip, Senator Chukwuka Utazi.
The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, and the National President of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Ambali Akeem Olatunji, who also attended the briefing, supported the position of the federal parliament.
Wabba specifically accused the governors of deliberately stalling the constitution review process because they wanted to prevent the passage of the local government autonomy and wanted to use state police to achieve their desperate bids.
The NLC boss said, “This is very sad information of arm-twisting the lawmaker. I can tell you that this process has been very transparent from the public hearing to this very stage and I can state that the position of the NLC on state police was very clear. If you check the history of thuggery, bandits, and Boko Haram in Nigeria, it started with political thuggery, so we are not mature for state police
“If a state governor can deploy political thugs to peaceful protest, you should know that if he has state police, he will do more than that.
“It is important for the process to be very transparent. Before 1999, Nigeria never had bandits, Boko Haram, and political thugs, why do we have them now and how do they acquire arms, a lot of them bear arms- the political elites buy arms for them.
“All of us can attest that elections in the local government are not transparent because of the interference of state governors, is that what we want for the state police
“We pan Nigerian organisation, and we understand the issues, there is a state that has not to pay salaries for 26 months including medical doctors and in that state, their accreditation has been withdrawn
“So let’s put all these issues in the basket, I think we have to commend the national assembly for doing the needful.
“We are going to start mobilisation immediately, we cannot take Nigeria for a ride for the institution to be working, it is the foundation of good governance, all developed countries have a strong institution, in the judiciary must be independent, same with Local Government and the Legislature
“We will commence the process of ensuring the autonomy for local government, Judiciary, and for our legislature is approved by the state assembly
The NULGE boss on his part said the conditions given by the state houses of Assembly were an attempt to blackmail the National Assembly.
He said, “We are ready to engage them. The basic thing is that they are delaying this amendment because of Local Government Autonomy.
