Public officeholders who hide behind the immunity clause to steal will soon be licking their wounds, as the House of Representatives is set to withdraw the contentious clause from the constitution. This is one of the recommendations contained in the report of the House of Representatives ad-hoc Committee on Review of the 1999 Constitution which is scheduled to be laid on the floor of the House today. Among other things, LEADERSHIP gathered from a member of the committee who craved anonymity since the report has not been debated by the House, that the report also recommended, despite variance with the Senate, that two terms be maintained, with a four- year span for political officeholders including the president and his deputy. On local government, the special committee headed by the deputy speaker of the House, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, asked that a definite uniform tenure be provided for all local government officeholders in line with the request of the Nigerian public. The committee had, last November, nationwide people’s public sessions held in all constituencies to collect input of the public on constitution amendment, the results of which were announced in a public presentation at the National Assembly earlier this year. Key elements in the template used for the opinion gathering exercise include the granting of full autonomy, including financial autonomy, to local government administrations and removal of immunity against prosecution from the president, vice president, governors and their deputies, , particularly as ıt relates to criminal offences. Others include rotation of the office of the president, scrapping of state independent electoral commissions (SIECs), state creation, state police as well as autonomy to state legislatures. Senators fight over state of nation address Meanwhile, senators were yesterday embroiled in an ugly brawl over President Jonathan’s rejection of certain provisions of the State of Nation Address Bill (2013) - a bill to make it mandatory for any sitting president to address a joint session of the National Assembly in July of every year. Jonathan, in the letter dated June 10 and read at Senate plenary, stated that he will not sign the bill into law on the grounds that it amounted to duplication of Section 67 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). But trouble started yesterday following a deadlock in plenary debates and a subsequent voice vote on a motion by the deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, to “adjourn” debates on the bill to clarify contentious constitutional and Senate Rules’ interpretation on the legality of Jonathan’s proposed amendments. Subsequently, senators broke out for 15 minutes into different lobby groups to take a position on the legality or otherwise in preparation for a second round of voice votes. Midway into the lobby break, two lawmakers -- Senators Kabir Marafa (Zamfara Central/ANPP) and Paulinus Igwe (Ebonyi Central/PDP) -- nearly exchanged blows but for the quick intervention of Senator Ahmed Lawan and some others who blocked the advancing duo already with clenched fists. “As democrats, we should consider what the president brings to us. It is not out of place for us to consider his (Jonathan) amendments,” Senator Smart Adeyemi (Kogi/PDP) stated as he led other senators in support of Jonathan’s proposal. The pro-Jonathan senators relied on Section 88 of the Senate Standing Orders which allows for amendment after a bill has been passed. But other senators led by Senator Ita Enang (Akwa Ibom, PDP), speaking in dissent, insisted that Jonathan’s proposed amendment was in conflict with the constitution. Section 58 (4) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) provides that failure of the president to assent to a bill leaves open the option of a legislative veto after 30 days, a provision hardly deployed by the National Assembly. Again, there is no provision for fresh amendments after a bill has been passed. The senators in opposition to Jonathan’s amendments called for a veto after 30 days. The Senate president, David Mark, desperately appealed for calm. Mark said, “As democrats, we should resolve all the problems by talking and not by boxing. In any case, for the first time in 14 years, I have seen an effort by people to put out boxing gloves; it is never necessary. We must never do that. We are distinguished senators and elder statesmen. We can do all the talking but we should never resort to boxing. “I want to appeal once more that we should suspend the debate on this for today (Wednesday), if nothing else but because of the way temper has risen. We are all in the same wave length and we will do what is in the best interest of this country.” Again, Senator Mark declared that the conflicting provisions (Constitution and Senate Rules) have fuelled confusion over the legality of Jonathan’s proposed amendments. “I think that, in a way, we (Senate) have boxed ourselves to a corner. That is the truth of the matter as it stands today,” he said. Senators voted in support for an adjournment at a second attempt. At a briefing later, the Senate spokesperson, Enyinnaya Abaribe, denied the brawl was over the president’s address. He said the lawmakers only reacted over a motion due for presentation today (Thursday), which will consider a planned arming of vigilantes in Zamfara State. Contentious amendments The legislation, approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives, has been rejected by Jonathan who has raised concerns with several aspects of the bill. I didn’t say Nigeria will shut down, Okonjo- Iweala insists Finance minister and coordinating minister for the economy Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala yesterday refuted reports quoting her as predicting that the country was going to shut down in September if the National assembly refused to do nothing about the 2013 budget. She was alleged to have declared, in a radio programme on Ray Power, “Political Platform” in Abuja that economic activities would be shut down if the National Assembly didn’t act fast on the contentious issues in the budget But admitting part of what she was quoted to have said, the minister told State House correspondents yesterday that the challenges facing the country were short term and that the federal government would not be able to pay salaries by September even though the economy remains robust. Denying ever predicting a shutdown of the country, Okonjo-Iweala contended the aforementioned does not in any way translate to mean that the economy will shut down. Faulting claims by the lawmakers that she was trying to pit them against the president, she said that the executive has a good working relationship with the legislative arm of government, even as she urged Nigerians to shun screaming and misleading headlines. She added that the executive arm of government will at all times work with the lawmakers in a collegial manner to ensure that the problems over the 2013 budget will be solved. Okonjo-Iweala said: “At no point in time did I say that the government is going to shut down or the country will shut down. The economy is strong; we are robust; we have our short- term challenges, as you know, to dealing with reduced revenue due to the issue of oil theft which Mr President is focusing on and is solving. “There is a committee of governors that he and the vice president have set up to try and deal with this issue. We are confident that we will be dealing with it and bringing several pipelines that have shut down back into play when we work with the oil companies. What I did say is that we will not be able to pay salaries, and that is a very different situation we are talking about. So, this was a very misleading headline from a newspaper and we should not spend the time of national debate on non-issues. “At no time did I say the country is going to shut down. I said we will not be able to pay salaries and that remains a fact. It is absolutely untrue -- we are not pitting anyone against anyone. We have been working with senators and House of Reps in a very collegial manner. We are working with them -- and because this headline was put out mischievously -- but that was not the headline… We are working with them because we do have to solve the problems. That will enable us to move forward and it is being done in a collegial manner.” Annual Budget: Reps move to remove envelope budgeting The House of Representatives has mandated its committees on Appropriations and Finance to examine the various budgetary systems Nigeria currently operates and make recommendations to the House to enable it design a more appropriate budgeting system. This is part of efforts by the House to do away with the envelope system of budgeting which restricts ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to an expenditure ceiling every year. The decision was reached after the lawmakers passed a resolution of a motion sponsored by the chairman, House committee on Human Rights, Hon. Beni Lar, in which the lawmaker condemned the practice and harped on the need to review the envelope budgeting system which, she said, was counter- productive to the economy. Lar argued that the MDAs were usually not given the opportunity of presenting their views and initiatives that would increase or decrease their expenditure ceiling, thereby creating avoidable hindrance to the implementation of the budget yearly. Similarly, the House yesterday passed a bill which seeks to authorize the roll-over of unspent capital expenditure of the MDAs in a financial year to the next financial year under the same heads through second reading. Sponsor of the bill Hon. Karimi Sunday argued, while explaining the general principles of the bill, that there was an
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 04:41:05 +0000