•Legislators weaken NLC, TUC
The Senate yesterday killed the proposal for six-year
single tenure for president and governors as it voted on
recommendations for further alteration of the 1999
Constitution.
The lawmakers also rejected local government autonomy
and mayoral status for the Federal Capital Territory
(FCT).
It curiously voted ‘yes’ to make any woman eligible for
marriage even if she is underage.
It endorsed a proposal that Presidential assent shall no
more be required for the purpose of altering the Nigerian
Constitution.
It also approved a proposal that a presidential or
governor’s assent would not be required after a bill
passed and transmitted to the president’s or governor
had stayed for 30 days with the president or governor as
the case may be.
It granted financial autonomy to State Houses of
Assembly.
The Senate also endorsed first line charge for State
Independent Electoral Commission, State Houses of
Assembly, Auditor-General of the State and State
Judiciary, but failed to approve first line charge for the
Attorney-General .
Before the historic voting began, Senate President David
Mark reminded senators that they were on the threshold
of history.
Mark told the lawmakers, that for any clause to pass, 73
yes votes were needed.
“I urge every Senator to vote according to his
conscience. Every voting will accordingly be reflected on
the votes and proceedings of the Senate. We have gone
through this before and because of the importance of the
issues slated for voting, we are not to resume debate
again. You must, therefore, endeavour to vote according
to your conscience,” Mark said.
On presidential assent for Constitution amendment, the
Senate voted that “for the purpose of altering the
provisions of this Constitution, the assent of the
President shall not be required.”
In all, 95 senators endorsed the proposal while three
opposed it.
Clause 4 which sought the alteration of Section 29 of the
Constitution almost threw works. In the upper chamber
into turmoil.
The Section is on renunciation of citizenship.
It states (29)(1) “Any citizen of Nigeria of full age who
wishes to renounce his Nigerian citizenship shall make a
declaration in the prescribed manner for the
renunciation. (4) For the purpose of subsection (1) of this
section (a) ‘full age” means the age of eighteen years
and above (b) any woman who is married shall be
deemed to be of full age.”
The Constitution review Committee recommended that
the Section 29(4)(b) should be deleted.
The Senate voted 75 ‘yes’ and 13 ‘no’ to delete the
Section.
The endorsement of the clause by the Senate became a
battle between Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima (Zamfara
West) and other senator.
Yerima said the clause is against Islamic law and insisted
that it should not be deleted.
He noted that declaring maturity age for women is
against Islamic law.
He said the Constitution forbids the National Assembly
from making law on Islamic matters.
Yerima insisted that a second vote should be taken on
the passed clause.
Mark said he is not an expert on Islamic law and added
that if Islamic scholars raise the same sentiment, it
should be revisited.
But Senator Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central) took up the
matter from Yerima.
He accused the Senate President of double standard.
Mark took exception to the accusation and reiterated
that he had been very consistent in the consideration of
the clauses.
He wondered why the issue should be made a personal
matter.
Following insistence by Yerima, Mark agreed that the
clause should be revisited.
Mark said, “Once more, because of the serious nature of
the laws we make and because we want our actions to
stand the test of time, we will revisit the issue raised by
Yerima.
“This is because of the sensitivity of issues that has to do
with religion, we should revisit it so that we take another
vote on it.
“But Yerima is a member of the Constitution Review
Committee, he should have raised the issue at that
level.”
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu who chaired
the review committee said that the clause has nothing to
do with religion.
Ekweremadu added that the Constitution Review
Committee felt that a woman should be old enough to
renounce Nigerian citizenship.
He recalled that Yerima said the clause is
unconstitutional at the review level but insisted that the
clause has nothing to do with religion.
A total of 99 Senators registered to vote on the
controversial clause.
The repeated vote showed that 60 Senators voted to
retain the clause while 35 voted to delete it as
recommended by the review committee.
After the vote Mark said: “Once you are married, you are
deemed to be of age whether you are one or two years it
doesn’t really matter.”
Immediately the clause was killed, there was outrage in
the gallery as many spectators felt that the upper
chamber had endorsed under age marriage.
Yerima was later shouted down when he attempted to
thank Senators for voting to retain the clause.
On assent to a bill, the Senate passed alteration to
Section 58 by inserting a new subsection “5A” which
states: “Where the President neither signifies that he
assents or that he withholds assent, the bill shall at the
expiration of thirty days become law.”
A total of 100 Senators registered to vote, 89 voted ‘yes’
while 11 voted ‘no’.
The Senate also approved the alteration of the Section
100 by inserting a new subsection “5a” which reads:
“Where the Governor neither signifies that he assents or
that he withholds assent, the bill shall at the expiration
of thirty days become law”
On Section 81, financial autonomy to Attorney General of
the Federation.
A total of 100 Senators registered to vote.
While 59 Senators voted that financial autonomy should
be granted the Attorney General of the Federation, 41
voted ‘no’
The clause failed to pass.
A total of 83 Senators voted ‘yes’ to grant the Auditor-
General of the Federation, 16 Senators voted ‘no’ while
two abstained.
On Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal
Committee, 99 Senators voted ‘yes’ to grant it autonomy
while two voted ‘no’.
On National Human Rights Commission, the upper
chamber voted 94 to six to grant the commission
financial autonomy.
The senate also approved that all labour matters would
henceforth be handled at the state levels.
Observers contended that this new development would
weaken the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade
Union Congress (TUC) at the national level.
The clause which states that “Any person who has held
office as President or Deputy President of the Senate,
Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of
Representatives, shall be entitled to pension for life at a
rate equivalent to the annual salary of the incumbent
President or Deputy President of the Senate, Speaker or
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives was
passed with a vote of 86 ‘yes’ and 13 ‘no’ with one
abstention.
Mark jokingly said that the clause was endorsed
‘overwhelmingly.’
The Senate endorsed financial autonomy for State
Independent Electoral Commission; State Houses of
Assembly; Auditor-General of the State; and State
Judiciary.
But the lawmaker opposed first line charge Attorney
General of State.
The Senate voted 86 against,14 in favour and one
abstention to nail the coffin of the clause on six year
single tenure for President and Governors.
On separation of the office of the Attorney General of the
Federation from the office of Minister of Justice, the
Senate voted 62 in favour and 35 against.
The clause failed because at least 73 votes in favour
were required.
On direct payment to local governments from the
Federation Account, 59 Senators voted in favour while 38
voted against while two abstained.
The clause failed.
The clause which sought to confer the power on the
Attorney General to direct investigation in certain cases
was killed with 62 Senators against and 31 in favour.
The Senate killed the clause for Mayoral status for the
FCT with 57 votes in favour, 39 against and two
abstention.
The Senate failed to remove the National Youth Service
Corps Decree 1993 from the Constitution.
It also failed to remove the Public Complaint Commission
Act, National Security Agencies Act and the Land Use Act
from the Constitution.
It endorsed the changed Afikpo North and South Local
Government Areas to Afikpo and Edda Local
Governments.
It also endorsed the change of Egbado North and Egbado
South LGAs to Yewa North and Yewa South LGAs.
Labour was deleted from the Exclusive List to the
Concurrent List with 77 votes in favour and 17 against.
Two Senators abstained.
The Senate also voted in favour of Railways being placed
on the Concurrent List.
The votes tied at 72 Senators in favour and 23 against.
Mark broke the tie by voting in favour of Railways going
to the Concurrent List.
The Lawmakers also removed pension matters from the
Exclusive List but it failed to remove Prisons from the
Exclusive List.
Despite explanation from Senate Leader, Senator Victor
Ndoma-Egba and Senator Umaru Dahiru that the removal
will solve the problem of prison congestion, the Senators
voted against the removal.
The Senate also voted against removing the Chief Justice
of Nigeria and other serving Judicial Officers as Chairman
and members respectively of the Federal Judicial Service
Commission.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Senator
Umaru Dahiru said that the CJN, Justice Mariam Aloma
Mukhtar, wrote to request the status quo be maintained.
Ekweremadu also informed the Senate that the CJN
wrote to say that she was not comfortable with the
clause.
He said that the clause is before the Senate to take a
decision on the matter.
Mark also said that not withstanding the letter of the CJN,
the Senate will vote on the clause.
The clause was defeated with a vote of 72 against and
26 in favour.
Mark voted against the removal of the CJN as Chairman
of Federal Judicial Service Commission.
At the end of the voting, Mark thanked Senators and
declared: “Today is a historic day in the history of
Nigeria.”
“We voted for those issues that we think will make
democracy to go on and make democracy to mature.”
He thanked the Senate Committee on Constitution
Review saying: “What ever sentiments they expressed,
we have put them to test today.”
Mark told the Senate that today would be devoted for
valedictory session for the late Senator Pius Ewherido.

Source: thenationonlineng.net/new/senate-kills-six-year-tenure/

Needed to be stopped.