There are strong indications that
the ongoing amendment to the nation’s constitution might set federal
lawmakers and state governors on a collision course over the former’s
resolve to grant autonomy to the country’s local government system.
The move by the National Assembly members is coming against the disapproval of the states to the granting of autonomy to the nation’s third tier of government even as they had vowed to stop any such desire by the national legislature.
LEADERSHIP recalls that first to kick against the move were governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who, in a communiqué issued in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital last year, condemned the move to grant the local governments autonomy.
The eight-point communiqué released after their five-hour meeting in Lafia was read by the immediate-past governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi.
The governors contended that autonomy for the local governments would undermine the fundamental principle of federalism and push the country towards a unitary system.
“Recognising the fact that federalism is the basis of our sovereignty, it is a matter within the purview of the federating units and every attempt to legislate by the National Assembly on aspects of local government administration will tilt the country towards a unitary state. This will undermine and weaken the fundamental principle of our federalism,” the governors had said.
Regardless, the National Assembly had, yesterday, strengthened the administration of local governments in Nigeria by providing for their funding, tenure, elections and clearly delineating their powers and responsibilities.
This and others are contained in report of the Conference Committee on the Review of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (further amendments) Bill.
LEADERSHIP also recalls that during the voting on the constitution amendments, the Senate had rejected local government autonomy but it scaled through in the House of Representatives. The autonomy was, however, approved by the joint conference and included in the harmonised version.
Reacting to the development, a governor from one of the southern states, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, condemned the move by the National Assembly. The governor who belongs to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) declared that no governor would support the move.
“The thing cannot fly at all; what they have done is just to cause needless friction in the polity but I can assure you that it will not see the light of the day because, for such to fly, it requires the concurrence of two-thirds of the states Assembly and I can tell you that no governor will support the move.
“Apart from that, for those of us at the states, we know what is facing the local governments: some of the councils cannot pay the salaries of workers; what they do survive on is the strategy of pooling resources together,” the governor said.
Efforts to speak to the governments of Gombe, Kano, Rivers, Bayelsa, Edo, Delta, Sokoto, Katsina, and Akwa Ibom were unsuccessful as the their commissioners for information either refused to pick calls made to them or promised to get back to our correspondent but did not do so by the time of going to press.
Immunity for presidents, governors retained
The Senate had earlier voted on 63 clauses while the House of Representatives voted on 71 clauses. The removal of immunity clause from governors and the controversial Clause 9 which gives the president powers to initiate a new constitution did not make it to the final harmonised version.
Sections 134 and 179 extend the time for conducting presidential or governorship re-run elections to 21 days instead of seven days for both presidential and gubernatorial elections.
INEC given power to deregister parties
They also give the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the power to deregister political parties for non-fulfilment of certain conditions such as breach of registration requirements and failure to win either a presidential, governorship, local government chairmanship or a seat in the National or state Assembly.
The contentious State of the Nation address which makes it mandatory for the president to attend a joint meeting of the National Assembly once a year was also approved.
Immunity for lawmakers
Immunity was conferred on legislators in respect of words spoken or written in the exercise of their legislative duties while Section 59 authorises the Senate president to convene a joint meeting of the National Assembly to reconsider a money bill where the President withholds his assent.
On failure of a president or governor to assent to a bill within 30 days, Sections 58 and 100 resolve the impasse where the president or governor of a state neglects to signify his assent or withholds such assent. This will strengthen the legislature’s authority and enable timely passage of laws for good governance.
It also approves the establishment of the office of the attorney general of the federation (AGF) and attorney-general of a state respectively as distinct from minister of justice and commissioner of justice.
The proposed new constitution also enhances the sovereignty of the citizens through their elected representatives by removing the need for presidential assent in constitution alteration exercise.
The report also, in one of its clauses, reduces the period within which the president or the governor of a state may authorise the withdrawal of moneys from the Consolidated Revenue Funds in the absence of an appropriation act from six to three months and also creates office of the accountant-general for the federal government
The recent trend of government officials ignoring summons from the National Assembly was also taken care of by empowering the National Assembly and the state Houses of Assembly respectively to prescribe sanctions, civil or criminal, or both, for failure, refusal or neglect to obey summons issued by a legislative house or any of its committees.
State assemblies, AGF on first-line charge; SIEC removed
It also engenders accountability and efficient service delivery by providing for the funding of the state Houses of Assembly, auditor-general of the state and the attorney-general of a state directly from the state’s Consolidated Revenue Fund, and the consequential provisions of the making of the local government a full third tier of government by creating the office of the auditor-general of the local government as well as the state local government service commission, and deleting the state independent electoral commission (SIEC).
Section 228 confers powers on the National Assembly to make laws for the procedures, guidelines and qualifications for access to the ballot by political parties and independent candidates, and it also provides that a court or tribunal shall not stay any proceedings on account of any interlocutory appeal
It also approves the conferment of exclusive jurisdiction on the federal high court for trial of electoral offences and provides for time for determination of pre-election matters, establishment of local governments election tribunal and time for determination of election petitions.
In particular, it provides that where a force majeure occurs, the period of the force majeure shall not be counted in the computation of the 180 days for the purpose of determining election petitions.
Items on exclusive list reduced
On exclusive executive powers, the report said such powers under Part 1 to the schedule of the constitution are “congested, cumbersome and unwieldy. There is therefore the need to decongest the exclusive list by maintaining only items of uttermost to the federation as a whole and transferring some items to the concurrent list.
“The committee therefore substituted post and telegraphs with post and telecommunications, included National Security Agencies and removed pensions, railways, stamp duties and wages from the exclusive list. The following items were transferred and included in the concurrent list: arbitration, environment, health, housing, railways, road safety, stamp duties, wages, land and agriculture, youths.”
Senate President David Mark urged the committee to send the approved report early to the state assemblies as, in most cases, it takes time before the state assemblies send it back to the National Assembly as two thirds of the state Houses of Assembly will have to approve it before it can become law. SOURCE: LEADERSHIP
The move by the National Assembly members is coming against the disapproval of the states to the granting of autonomy to the nation’s third tier of government even as they had vowed to stop any such desire by the national legislature.
LEADERSHIP recalls that first to kick against the move were governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who, in a communiqué issued in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital last year, condemned the move to grant the local governments autonomy.
The eight-point communiqué released after their five-hour meeting in Lafia was read by the immediate-past governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi.
The governors contended that autonomy for the local governments would undermine the fundamental principle of federalism and push the country towards a unitary system.
“Recognising the fact that federalism is the basis of our sovereignty, it is a matter within the purview of the federating units and every attempt to legislate by the National Assembly on aspects of local government administration will tilt the country towards a unitary state. This will undermine and weaken the fundamental principle of our federalism,” the governors had said.
Regardless, the National Assembly had, yesterday, strengthened the administration of local governments in Nigeria by providing for their funding, tenure, elections and clearly delineating their powers and responsibilities.
This and others are contained in report of the Conference Committee on the Review of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (further amendments) Bill.
LEADERSHIP also recalls that during the voting on the constitution amendments, the Senate had rejected local government autonomy but it scaled through in the House of Representatives. The autonomy was, however, approved by the joint conference and included in the harmonised version.
Reacting to the development, a governor from one of the southern states, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, condemned the move by the National Assembly. The governor who belongs to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) declared that no governor would support the move.
“The thing cannot fly at all; what they have done is just to cause needless friction in the polity but I can assure you that it will not see the light of the day because, for such to fly, it requires the concurrence of two-thirds of the states Assembly and I can tell you that no governor will support the move.
“Apart from that, for those of us at the states, we know what is facing the local governments: some of the councils cannot pay the salaries of workers; what they do survive on is the strategy of pooling resources together,” the governor said.
Efforts to speak to the governments of Gombe, Kano, Rivers, Bayelsa, Edo, Delta, Sokoto, Katsina, and Akwa Ibom were unsuccessful as the their commissioners for information either refused to pick calls made to them or promised to get back to our correspondent but did not do so by the time of going to press.
Immunity for presidents, governors retained
The Senate had earlier voted on 63 clauses while the House of Representatives voted on 71 clauses. The removal of immunity clause from governors and the controversial Clause 9 which gives the president powers to initiate a new constitution did not make it to the final harmonised version.
Sections 134 and 179 extend the time for conducting presidential or governorship re-run elections to 21 days instead of seven days for both presidential and gubernatorial elections.
INEC given power to deregister parties
They also give the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the power to deregister political parties for non-fulfilment of certain conditions such as breach of registration requirements and failure to win either a presidential, governorship, local government chairmanship or a seat in the National or state Assembly.
The contentious State of the Nation address which makes it mandatory for the president to attend a joint meeting of the National Assembly once a year was also approved.
Immunity for lawmakers
Immunity was conferred on legislators in respect of words spoken or written in the exercise of their legislative duties while Section 59 authorises the Senate president to convene a joint meeting of the National Assembly to reconsider a money bill where the President withholds his assent.
On failure of a president or governor to assent to a bill within 30 days, Sections 58 and 100 resolve the impasse where the president or governor of a state neglects to signify his assent or withholds such assent. This will strengthen the legislature’s authority and enable timely passage of laws for good governance.
It also approves the establishment of the office of the attorney general of the federation (AGF) and attorney-general of a state respectively as distinct from minister of justice and commissioner of justice.
The proposed new constitution also enhances the sovereignty of the citizens through their elected representatives by removing the need for presidential assent in constitution alteration exercise.
The report also, in one of its clauses, reduces the period within which the president or the governor of a state may authorise the withdrawal of moneys from the Consolidated Revenue Funds in the absence of an appropriation act from six to three months and also creates office of the accountant-general for the federal government
The recent trend of government officials ignoring summons from the National Assembly was also taken care of by empowering the National Assembly and the state Houses of Assembly respectively to prescribe sanctions, civil or criminal, or both, for failure, refusal or neglect to obey summons issued by a legislative house or any of its committees.
State assemblies, AGF on first-line charge; SIEC removed
It also engenders accountability and efficient service delivery by providing for the funding of the state Houses of Assembly, auditor-general of the state and the attorney-general of a state directly from the state’s Consolidated Revenue Fund, and the consequential provisions of the making of the local government a full third tier of government by creating the office of the auditor-general of the local government as well as the state local government service commission, and deleting the state independent electoral commission (SIEC).
Section 228 confers powers on the National Assembly to make laws for the procedures, guidelines and qualifications for access to the ballot by political parties and independent candidates, and it also provides that a court or tribunal shall not stay any proceedings on account of any interlocutory appeal
It also approves the conferment of exclusive jurisdiction on the federal high court for trial of electoral offences and provides for time for determination of pre-election matters, establishment of local governments election tribunal and time for determination of election petitions.
In particular, it provides that where a force majeure occurs, the period of the force majeure shall not be counted in the computation of the 180 days for the purpose of determining election petitions.
Items on exclusive list reduced
On exclusive executive powers, the report said such powers under Part 1 to the schedule of the constitution are “congested, cumbersome and unwieldy. There is therefore the need to decongest the exclusive list by maintaining only items of uttermost to the federation as a whole and transferring some items to the concurrent list.
“The committee therefore substituted post and telegraphs with post and telecommunications, included National Security Agencies and removed pensions, railways, stamp duties and wages from the exclusive list. The following items were transferred and included in the concurrent list: arbitration, environment, health, housing, railways, road safety, stamp duties, wages, land and agriculture, youths.”
Senate President David Mark urged the committee to send the approved report early to the state assemblies as, in most cases, it takes time before the state assemblies send it back to the National Assembly as two thirds of the state Houses of Assembly will have to approve it before it can become law. SOURCE: LEADERSHIP
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