THE 2014 NATIONAL CONFERENCE DRAFT
CONSTITUTION
By James Pam
Delegates
to the 2014 National Conference resumed plenary on Monday 11th
August, 2014 for the purpose of adopting their compiled recommendations and resolutions.
They had hoped that they would simply read through one neat document, cross the
‘t’s and dot the ‘i’s to ensure that the final compendium
to be presented to Mr. President accurately captures their decisions. However, what
they were confronted with was several documents which have generated such a
controversy among them that the entire could be jettisoned after all.
Three
documents were presented to delegates upon resumption. The first document is
the Conference Report proper, which is in two volumes; Vol. 1 has about 500
pages and Vol. 2 has about 900 pages. The second document is a ‘matrix’, in the
words of the Conference Secretary, Mrs. Gloria Azinge. As to be expected in a
matrix, it has been prepared in three columns; the first column contains the
current Nigerian 1999 Constitution provisions that affected by Conference
decisions; the second column contains the constitutional amendments recommended
by the Conference delegates, while the third and last column contains a fusion
of conference recommendations and the 1999 Constitution.
In
the absence of Conference Chairman and his deputy, Justice Idris Kutigi and
Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, respectively, Mrs. Azinge explained further by saying
that in order to make the work of delegates easier, the Secretariat had gone ahead,
extracted the third column of the second document, which is the fusion of the
existing constitution and the amendments proposed by the delegates, and produced
a another document titled, ‘Draft Constitution’. It is this third document and
the liberty taken by the Conference Secretariat to produce it that is causing
the hullabaloo and drawing flaks from some delegates.
Azinge
was not finished yet. She added that the Secretariat had also produced the
fourth document, a draft Bill, which Mr. President will use to introduce the
amendments and alterations to the National Assembly, which could eventually
lead to the Fourth Amendment to the Nigerian Constitution.
The
‘Draft Constitution’ immediately drew the ire of some delegates, especially
those from some parts of defunct Northern Region. On the NTA Good Morning
program today, 13th August, 2014, Prof. Auwalu Yadudu and Malan Tanko
Yakassai told anchor persons, Kingsley Osadolor and Claire Adelabu, and all
Nigerians that: (1) The Conference does not have Mr. President’s mandate to
produce a Draft Constitution: (2) Such a Draft Constitution has no legal basis because
the National Conference is not tantamount to a Constitutional Conference: (3) Delegates
would be overstepping their bounds if they prepared a Draft Constitution: (4) The
1999 Constitution provides that a new Constitution can only be introduced to
the floor of the National Assembly by the legislators themselves and nobody
else.
Newspapers in the last 24 hours have
reported that a communiqué was read in Abuja on Tuesday, 12 August, 2014 by the
leader of some northern Conference delegates, former Inspector General of
Police, Ibrahim Coomassie. A picture embedded in one of the newspaper reports
has Coomassie flanked by former member of the House of Representatives,
Muhammed Kumalia, former Federal Capital Territory Minister, Gen. Jerry Useni,
one-time Senate President, Prof. Iyorchia Ayu, and others. Coomassie said that
the Draft Constitution was meant to legitimize President Goodluck Jonathan’s
third term agenda and that they objected to it. He said drafting a new
Constitution is ultra vires the functions and mandate of the National
Conference and that the group they were representing was dissociating itself from
the Draft Constitution.
The
objections of these core northern delegates and their arguments are untenable.
At the inauguration of the National Conference on the 17th May,
2014, Mr. President said, “Let me at
this point thank the National Assembly for introducing the provision for a
referendum in the proposed amendment of the Constitution. This should be
relevant for this Conference if at the end of the deliberations, the need for a
referendum arises. I therefore urge the National Assembly and the State Houses
of Assembly to speed up the Constitutional amendment process especially with
regard to the subject of referendum.” The President was more visionary than
some people care to think. From inception, he envisioned the situation before
us today and was able to foresee its solution. Our elected legislators in the
NASS should play their part in this process honorably by making legal provision
for a referendum to take place and all will be well. This is what Mr. President
and other Nigerians ask of them.
I was privy to email communications
between some delegates in which they made reference to a new
partnership that the National Conference has spurned between the three southern
geo-political Zones and the North-Central Zone. For lack of a better name, one
of the communications christened it the “Greater South”. The implication of
this new alliance is that four geo-political zones identified common progressive
grounds during the Conference debates, while two preferred to maintain the
status quo. Two-thirds majority of delegates are not just comfortable, but are
very happy with the Conference Draft Constitution. Should the one-third conservatives
have their way over the progressive and pragmatic majority? I dare say, no.
What was the expectation of the
so-called “northern delegates” (minus those from the NC Zone, except for Gen.
Jerry Useni and Prof. Iyorchia Ayu, who are both in their geriatric cycle of
redundancy) when they were debating and reaching decision on constitution
matters for three months? Didn’t they realize that their decisions were meant
to be used to amend our Constitution? They should be happy that their work
coming into fruition even faster than they had thought and that their labor may
not be in vain after all.
Again,
in his inauguration speech on 17th may, 2014, Mr. President said,
“In inaugurating this National Conference today, we are not unmindful of the
argument of those who say that we do not need such a Conference since we
already have an elected Parliament and an elected Government in place. As
cogent as that argument may sound, I have chosen to act on the sincere
conviction that in the truly democratic nation we are striving to build, we
must never ignore the loudly expressed views of the majority of ordinary
Nigerians.” The views of majority of Nigerians have been loudly expressed in
the Conference ‘Draft Constitution’ through their delegates to the National
Conference and must not be ignored.
In
the same inauguration speech, which was commented upon by all 492 delegates, the
President said, “The phrase in the preamble that says ‘We, the people’, has been variously criticized as being
misleading because. According to the critics, the Constitution was not written
by the people. There are also those who believe that the Constitution is
not our problem but the political will to faithfully implement it for the peace
and progress of Nigeria. While opinions on the matter can be as diverse as
rain showers, I believe that irrespective of our personal views on the issue,
no one can deny the fact that every Constitution is a living document that
needs to be revised and improved upon from time to time. The United States,
which is the model democracy in the eyes of many, has amended its Constitution
27 times since it was first adopted in 1787.” Mr. President, therefore,
expected delegates to present to him a revised Nigerian Constitution at the end
of their deliberations, provided they recommended enough amendments to the
existing one to warrant the drafting of a new one incorporating their
recommendations.
I
seize this opportunity to urge all well-meaning delegates to defend their work,
which is now embodied in the Conference ‘Draft Constitution’ and oppose their
colleagues who might want to kill it. If they don’t, they would be doing the
President and all Nigerians a great disservice. I would go as far as describing
the production of a Draft Constitution for Nigeria by the 2014 National Conference as its greatest
achievement.
James
Pam, 13 August, 2014
