Constitution amendment: Senators, Presidency head for showdown

 

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ABUJA—AS the Presidency drags the National Assembly to the Supreme Court seeking an order to nullify all the proposed amendments to the 1999 constitution, majority of senators said yesterday that they were ready to meet the presidency in court.

Members of the House of Representatives on their part insisted that the lawmakers met the constitutional requirements on the process.

President Goodluck Jonathan meantime has asked the Senate President, David Mark and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal to halt moves by members of the National Assembly to go ahead with the constitution amendment process.

The senators who reacted to the suit filed by the president to nullify the amendments carried out on the constitution promised to apply for an accelerated hearing when the National Assembly is served with court processes so that the matter would be dispensed with before the end of the 7th senate.

Besides, the senators said as they were waiting to be served the court processes, the Presidency should return the original copy of the bill sent to it.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, Akwa Ibom North East, said the decision of the Presidency to challenge the constitution amendment in court was a good development.

He also said that the action of President Goodluck Jonathan was an indication that he (Jonathan) was a patriotic Nigerian interested in the good of the country.

He, however, faulted the time it took the Presidency to raise objection to certain aspects of the amendment, stressing that it would be the duty of the court to determine whether the National Assembly followed the required legal procedure in the amendment process.

He said: “I do not at all quarrel when anybody goes to court, I quarrel when you start calling press conferences and abusing the other party. Was the Presidency not party or aware when these matters were available for public hearing? Did they come for the public hearing to make any of the points they are making in court.

”I will refuse to see the action of the presidency as a slight because this is what we passed, the Supreme Court Additional Jurisdiction Act, it is only that it is coming too late in the day, but we should apply for accelerated hearing; it is not a slight, I don’t see it that way even though some of my colleagues may see it that way.

“At every stage during the hearing of the matter, the Attorney General, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Special Adviser to Mr President on National Assembly Affairs, all of them were there at the various hearing.

“But at the same time, if the President feels that the provisions in the constitution amendment is going to whittle down the powers of the executive and that he is not going to leave a weak or embattled executive and he is challenging it, I think it is a show of faith in the country that he does not want to leave a burden on the incoming government.

“He is still acting as a statesman up to the end in his belief that the legislature does not have this power or cannot whittle down the power of the Executive; that is one aspect that I will credit him for.”

“Therefore, I am happy that the president having doubts about the powers of the legislature to do what it has done, has not resorted to press attack on the legislature, he has sent a letter to the legislature and at the same time has approached the court to declare whether or not the legislature is right in the procedure adopted and in the subject matter.

The Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, said it was regrettable that the Presidency had taken the present path, even when it had the opportunity, during the public hearing, to raise any objections on the amendment for the purpose of engagement.

On what happens to the letter to the Presidency for a return of the original copy of the bill, Senator Ndoma-Egba said the senate still expected the original copy of the bill.

Senator Umaru Dahiru, Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, said there was nothing wrong with the Presidency going to court.

He said:   “The implication is that; the constitution is very clear, if you do not agree with anything, either the National Assembly or the federal government can take either one to court. And in case the Supreme Court says otherwise, we have to comply.

“It is checks and balances that is the beauty of this democracy; if you go beyond your limit and if you think you are right, we go for interpretation.  If the President feels the procedure is technically wrong, then he can seek interpretation which he wants now.

“If the court says they are right then there is nothing we can do, otherwise we come for amendments. We are ready to take any correction.  It does not matter what I believe or do not believe is for the court to determine.’’

News source: vanguard.com