Constitution Review: The president and state governors can face jail terms if they refuse to honor summons from federal and state lawmakers
This is because there is a provision in 0ne of the sections of the constitution amendment bill passed by the Senate which empowers the National Assembly and State Assemblies to summon the president and state governors to answer questions bordering on security or other issues on which the national and state houses of assembly have powers to make laws, failing which they can be convicted.
The bill seeks alteration to Section 67 of the Principal Act by inserting after subsection (3) a new subsection (4).
The new subsection (4) provides: “Nothing in this section shall preclude the National Assembly from summoning the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to attend a joint session of the National Assembly to answer questions on national security or any issue whatsoever, over which the National Assembly has powers to make laws”.
The bill further seeks to alter Section 108 of the Principal Act to insert a new subsection (4) to provide: “Nothing in this section shall preclude the House of Assembly of the State from summoning the Governor of the State to attend a sitting of the House of Assembly to answer questions on security or on any issue whatsoever, over which the House of Assembly has powers to make laws.”
It also passed a bill to make it an offence, and to provide for the possible conviction of any person who refuses to honour the summons of the National Assembly or any of its committee.
The bill seeks to alter Section 129 of the Principal Act to insert after subsection (2) a new subsection (3).
The new section provides: “Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Constitution, any person who, after having been summoned to attend, fails, refuses or neglects to do so and does not excuse such failure, refusal or neglect to the satisfaction of the House or the Committee in question, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to such punishment as shall be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly.
Out of a total of 93 registered senators, 77 voted in favour of the bill to summon the president and governors, 13 voted against and one lawmaker abstained, bringing total votes to 91.
The chamber also approved a bill to include presiding officers on the membership of the National Security Council.
The chamber, however, turned down a bill to provide for more seats for women in the National and State Houses of Assembly.
Also rejected were bills to alter Part I of the Second Schedule of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to include Value Added Tax on the Exclusive Legislative List; removal of Transitional Lawmaking Powers of the Executive; to provide for Diaspora voting; to grant mayoralty status for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and appointment of a minister from the FCT.
The Senate has however approved financial autonomy for state legislatures, judiciaries and local governments in the country.
The approval came yesterday during voting on the report of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bills, 2022.
Senators during voting on the report rejected pension for presiding officers of the legislature.
Out of a total number of 88 Senators registered to vote on the bill, 34 voted in support and 53 against the bill.
Also rejected were bills to override presidential veto in constitution alteration, and to override presidential veto in respect of ordinary money bills.
The rejected bills require the mandatory four-fifth (votes of 88 Senators) and two-thirds majority (votes of 73 senators) to pass, respectively.
The bill on Procedure for Overriding Presidential Veto in Constitutional Alteration seeks to provide for the procedure for the passing of a constitution alteration bill where the president withholds assent.
On the other hand, the bill for an Act to alter the provisions of the Constitution to provide the procedure for overriding executive veto in respect of money bills seeks to provide for mode of exercising federal legislative power on money bills before the National Assembly.
While 94 senators registered to vote on the bill to override presidential veto in constitutional alteration, 79 lawmakers of the chamber voted in support and 15 against it. The bill fell short of the needed 88 votes (four-fifth requirement) to pass.
On the bill to override presidential veto in respect of money bills, out of a total of 84 registered senators, 44 voted in support, and 39 against the bill. The bill also fell short of the required two-thirds requirement (73 senators) to pass.
In addition, the Senate also rejected bills to provide for the removal of presiding officers of the legislature, and to change the name of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area in Plateau State to Gwol Local Government Area.
Meanwhile, the Senate passed a total of 49 bills out of the 68 considered bills during voting yesterday.
The bills were contained in a report of the Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution.
A total of 19 alteration bills were rejected during the voting exercise which lasted almost five hours during plenary.
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, while setting the stage for voting on the bills, explained that only bills which enjoyed passage in both chambers would be transmitted to the State Houses of Assembly for concurrence.
According to him, any bill which fails to pass in the Senate or House of Representatives during voting automatically stands rejected by the National Assembly.
Reps Approve LG Autonomy, Independent Candidacy
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives yesterday voted in support of financial and administrative autonomy for local government areas in the country in the ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The lawmakers, at plenary, passed the bill seeking the abrogation of the state/local government joint account, as well as a bill proposing to establish the local government area as a third tier of government in the country.
The bill for the abrogation of states/ local governments joint account was passed by 286 votes, while the bill for administrative autonomy for the council areas was supported by 258 members, while 15 members voted against.
Also, the House approved bills seeking to move electricity generation and distribution, airports, railways and prisons from the exclusive to concurrent list.
However, the House rejected the bills seeking to extend immunity from criminal prosecution to the heads of the legislature and judiciary and life pension for the Senate president, deputy Senate president, Speaker of the House and deputy speaker.
The bill for pension for presiding officers was rejected by 193 votes against 162. A total of 240 votes was required to pass the bill. On the other hand, 185 voted for immunity for the heads of the legislature and judiciary while 111 voted against.
Also, the Green chamber rejected a bill proposing the creation of 147 special legislative seats for women in the national and state legislatures. While 81 members voted in support of the bill, 208 members voted against the proposed legislation.
After the defeat of the women-oriented bills, the deputy minority leader, Toby Okechukwu, appealed to the lawmakers to support a bill proposing a minimum of 20 percent of ministerial and commissioner positions for women.
Okechukwu said: “I made this observation mindful of the duty we owe ourselves. It does not hurt, injure or do any harm to the country if we bring the women up to speed.”
However, when the bill was subjected to the vote, only 224 members voted in favour. When the proposed legislation failed to garner 240 required votes, Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila called for a voice vote after which he ruled in favour of those in support of the bill.
Also, the House rejected a bill seeking to make the removal of a presiding officer of the national or state assembly more strident by 201 votes against 71.
However, Gbajabiamila, apparently dissatisfied with the voting, subject the bill to a second vote. In the second balloting, 185 members voted for the bill, while 99 voted against.
In all, the House passed 56 out of the 68 constitution alteration bills and rejected 12 after a tension-soaked session, which lasted for over five hours.
Apart from the local government autonomy bill, other constitution alteration bills passed by the House include the proposed legislation seeking to provide for independent candidacy for elections in presidential, governorship, legislative and local government council elections, which was passed. However, the bill for Diaspora voting was rejected by 240 votes against 58.
Similarly, the House rejected a bill seeking to include Value Added Tax (VAT) in the exclusive-legislative list by 209 votes against 91.
Also, the House approved the financial autonomy for state legislature and judiciary with 286 votes against one, while 305 members supported an alteration of the constitution to empower the national and state houses of assembly to summon the president or a governor on any issue they have power to legislate on.
Similarly, 304 members voted for the creation of a state security council for the various states in the country, while 290 members voted for the inclusion of the presiding officers of the National Assembly in the National Security Council.
Also, the 259 members voted for the alteration of the constitution to provide for the president, vice president, governor and deputy governor to vacate office if they defect from the party on whose platform they were elected into office, except there is a division in their political party.
Earlier, the speaker, while addressing the wife of the vice president, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo, who was in the chamber to observe the proceeding, promised that the House would look dispassionately at the bills relating to women.
NLC mobilises states for LG autonomy approval
The persistent demands by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for autonomy for local government and for the judiciary has yielded results as the federal lawmakers yesterday voted overwhelmingly in favour of their autonomy.
Though both chambers of the National Assembly approved local government administrative autonomy as a critical component of democracy, some lawmakers voted against the move.
The labour congress had on Monday during the protest promised to shame lawmakers who would refuse to vote in favour of autonomy.
In several protests held Monday and Tuesday at the National Assembly, NLC urged lawmakers to give 100 percent of their votes for autonomy when they commence clause-by-clause vote on the ongoing constitution amendment.
At the meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly yesterday, both the NLC and lawmakers agreed to mobilise Nigerian workers for state and local government rallies in furtherance of the demands to push state legislators to vote along the same lines.
Comrade Wabba also presented before the leadership of the National Assembly the request to retain labour on the exclusive list.
He insisted that legislators approve 35 percent affirmative action for women and decide the indigeneship between her local government of origin and that of her husband.
He said, “We are here to appreciate what the National Assembly has done about the autonomy and the issue of women. Progressively we are trying to allocate 101 seats for women. Third is the issue of citizenship and indigeneship of women; is it to become the indigene of the husband or their fathers? We want that to be sorted out. We also have the issue of 35 percent reservation for women and more representative seats allocated to women. We urge the National Assembly members to vote in favour of this; every senator and member will answer his name on how the voting goes,” Wabba said.
The chairman, Senate committee on labour, Senator Godiya Akwashiki who spoke on behalf of the Senate leadership, expressed support for the mobilisation of NLC members across states to press on state legislators to vote in support of the autonomy for the judiciary and local government.
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