Constitution amendment: Govs, Reps end feud •Amended constitution now "sleeping document" •INEC reverts to 1999 constitution for 2011 elections

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Written by Idowu Samuel, Abuja
Sunday, 12 December 2010

The cut throat rivalry between members of the National Assembly and state governors over constitution amendment which seeks to make federal lawmakers members of National Executive Committee (NEC) of their respective political parties has come to naught after all.

This is because implementation of the amendment as contained in the new Electoral Act as proposed would not take effect until the next legislative session, going by the latest developments in the House of Representatives.

Notwithstanding, the House is set to pass the controversial amendment on NEC membership on Tuesday, whereas, the amendment if passed would be kept on hold, and would not come to effect in the current legislative session, in spite of the hullabaloo the proposed amendment had caused of late.

At the moment, every effort by the Senate and the House of Representatives to amend the 1999 Constitution had ended a nullity, the Court having declared all the amendments inchoate; un-implementable pending the final dispensation of litigation against the proposed amendment by the National Assembly.

Indication to this effect emerged at the close of legislative business last week when the House leadership shelved its decision to constitute the membership of Harmonisation Committee for the final passage of the Bill on Constitution Amendment on the basis that the Bill was yet to get into Third Reading.

During the sitting, the Presiding Speaker, Honourable Bayero Nafada had read the names of members who are to constitute the Harmonisation Committee, but was promptly advised not to do so because the Bill on Constitution amendment was yet to be passed for Third Reading.

There have been heated controversy over the amendment proposed to the First Amendment Act by the National Assembly to the effect that members of the National Assembly would henceforth be members of NEC of their parties, that being a ploy to weaken the stranglehold of state governors on the parties.

The House Commiteee Chairman on Rules and Business, Honourable Ita Enang who offered advice on the shelving of the constitution of the Committee said, “This committee was set up in anticipation of the Third Reading that we will do. The conference committee can only start work when we have done the Third Reading on Tuesday next week.

Ita Enang, however, explained that the passage of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill does not mean that the amendment would become operational, stating that the passage would only be held in abeyance until all technical issues surrounding the constitution amendment were addressed.

The chairman House Committee on Rules and Business reiterated that at the moment, the Independent National Electoral Commission has the leave to conduct its programmes on the elections in lines with 1999 Constitution, the Court having declared the amendments proposed by the National Assembly to the constitution in-operative.

He added, “The first amendment to the 1999 Constitution that we made has not come into effect because the court had nullified it. So it is now a sleeping document. And unless the President assents to it, it has not become the constitution. The same thing applied to the second amendment.

“It has even now become very dangerous for us to take it to the President for assent because, if the President signs it, and it becomes a law, INEC will be forced to conduct elections in January. So that will be a great setback.

Therefore, what we are doing now, based on the First and Second amendment to the constitution, is null and void because that constitution has not come into effect and it cannot come into effect now.

The National Assembly had devoted much attention to the task of amending the 1999 constitution, but the process suffered a major set back when a high court sitting in Lagos declared the First Amendment Act a nullity on the basis that the Nigerian President must sign the constitution to become operative.

Both the Senate and the House had initially proclaimed the constitution operational, insisting that the amendment effected on the 1999 constitution required no assent of the President to become operational.

Nothing has changed.

3 Months to election, no new electoral register.

10 Months after Jonathan came to office INEC will conduct elections in Delta State with old electoral register

The pretence of internal democracy in the PDP has been fed to the dogs because the President feels a rigorous process might not favour him. Staggered PDP Primaries is discarded while the President openly promises automatic tickets for PDP Governors. Something as trivial as a pre-announced schedule of PDP Primaries was almost changed because the President curiously  believes that somehow the order of primaries affects his chances.

And yet in the face of all these glaring failures the cash-for-endorsement scam has been the order of the day.

The future of this country is bleak if Jonathan is not stopped. It is that simple.

Its still the same game the more you look the less you see.