As the process of amending the 1999 Constitution by the 9th National Assembly gets underway, our correspondents tried to gauge the views of stakeholders from the different geo-political zones. NWANOSIKE ONU (Awka), BISI OLANIYI (Benin City), BISI OLADELE (Ibadan), TOBA ADEDEJI (Osogbo) and ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE (Kaduna) report
The Senate Committee on Constitution Review, chaired by Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, has indicated that zonal public hearings would commence this week, to give Nigerians the opportunity to air their views on what constitutional provisions they want.
Southeast: devolution, power rotation
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze says it will not deviate from the decision it took in Anambra State a few years ago concerning the constitutional amendment. Its National Publicity Secretary, Alex Ogbonnia said the group met at the Dr. Alex Ekwueme Square, Awka, Anambra State three years ago and agreed on what would make the people happy.
Some of those decisions, according to the Ohanaeze chieftain, were the return to ‘true federalism’ with the six geopolitical zones as the federating units. He said anything pertaining to local governments should become the affair of the federating units. He added: “We also want sustainable fiscal federalism, with a resource control that remits 50 per cent revenue to the central government.
“The people of the Southeast also want devolution of powers and the conceding of numerous items on the Exclusive Legislative List to the federating units. Our demands also include the decentralisation of the police force, to empower each state to create its police force, which will collaborate with the federal police.
“There should also be a rotational presidency between the North and the South, with six vice presidents, one from each zone. The body also wants the judiciary to reflect the six zones, each with a Court of Appeal, while the Supreme Court remains central.”
The Coordinator of Transform Nigeria Movement (TNM), Comrade Obi Ochije said his group share the views of Ohanaeze Ndigbo on the issue of constitutional reform. He said once the country is restructured, the various agitations by different groups in the South would stop.
He blames the lopsided appointments of the present administration for the division in the country and the increasing call for separation by Oduduwa or Biafra agitators. He said with such arrangement, other zones would not be happy that they were being marginalised.
Southsouth: equity, fairness, justice
A frontline human rights activist, Kola Edokpayi has enjoined members of the National Assembly to be sincere this time round, in their bid to review 1999 Constitution, in order to halt the growing separatist agitations across the country. He said the lawmakers must embark on holistic restructuring of the country, to give everyone a sense of belonging.
The Benin, Edo State-based Edokpayi said as the goose that lays the golden egg (crude oil), the Niger Delta deserves much better development, to liberate the people from abject poverty in the midst of plenty.
National Publicity Secretary of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Ken Robinson the country deserves a brand new constitution. He said: “The position of the Niger Delta people is restructuring of the country, which is a complete alteration of the military-imposed 1999 constitution. The present structure of Nigeria has become grossly defective and inappropriate for a heterogeneous society like ours. It does not provide the enabling environment for growth and progress among the component states and spawns unhealthy competition among the various ethnic nationalities and tribes.
“The current attempt by the National Assembly to amend the constitution must provide the desired changes that will be acceptable. Though we have serious doubts that the process will be conclusive, it may be an attempt in futility or merely to distract citizens clamouring for restructuring.
“While PANDEF agrees to a united, indivisible Nigeria, it must be based on equity, fairness and justice. The Niger Delta region remains the biggest victim of the present flawed federal system. How do we explain the situation in which the zone that produces the resources of this nation benefits little or nothing, whereas zones that do not contribute anything significant to the national treasury appropriate and monopolise favourable benefits?”
The PANDEF said his group submitted 16-point demands to the Federal Government on November 1, 2016, but “sadly they have remained unattended to by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, except the establishment of the Nigeria Maritime University, Okerenkoko in Delta State and the launch of Ogoni clean-up, whose status is unclear to us”.
Robinson also stated that Niger Delta people would want to see positive changes in the proposed review of the constitution, to put an end to the frequent agitations in the region.
Southwest: new constitution
A group made up top professionals in Yoruba land is set to present its memorandum during the public hearing that would be held in the region by the National Assembly committee saddled with the responsibility of reviewing the 1999 Constitution. The professionals, under the aegis of the Rebirth Group, want the country to have six independent regions based on the existing geo-political zones. Each region, it said, should be headed by a premier.
In the proposal, the current 36 states will be retained, but they will operate under each region. The president and vice president, the Rebirth Group said will be elected on a rotational basis among the elected five representatives representing each region in the Central Executive Council.
The group said: “A president will serve only a two-year term and hand over to the vice president who hails from a different region. The six regions will be recognized as equal, autonomous and desecrating units. They will have separate constitutions, while a new constitution will also be developed for the central government.”
The group intends to propose a fiscal sharing formula that will see local governments receive 30 per cent of the revenue, states 25 per cent, regional government 25 per cent and the central government the remaining 20 per cent. It added: “The premier and deputy premier will emerge from among the state governors and they will serve a two-year term each on a rotational basis. They will be elected by members of the Regional Executive Council, which will be made up of the governors of each region.”
The pan Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere is yet to decide on whether or not it will attend the public hearing. A source close to the organisation said Afenifere is reluctant to participate in the public hearing. He added that the group will decide at a meeting of its executive members later this week.
Its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi said the Afenifere is convinced that the 1999 Constitution is not only faulty but highly defective. He said: “Our position is that we must do away with it and have a new one. The type of constitution we are clamouring for is one that is federal in every sense. There should be no ‘Residual’ or ‘Exclusive’ powers that the federating units are barred from exercising, particularly since these matters are those that affect their lives directly.
“For us, each constituent part should be able to decide and possibly take the necessary actions on matters within its jurisdiction, as was the case when we ran regional governments in the past. That is the major fulcrum of the restructuring that we are insisting must take place NOW!”
Osun State-based Kiriji Heritage Defenders believes the planned constitution review is meant to distract the ongoing agitation for secession from different zones. Its Director-General, Dr Ekundayo Ademola said only a stabilised structure can be restructured. He said: “The 1999 Constitution is a document made by the Abdusalami Abubakar regime. It is an illegal document made by few people with Decree 24. It does not reflect the interest and positions of Nigerians.
“We have had several constitutional conferences with reports that never saw the light of the day, not to talk of implementation. Where were the National Assembly members when the Federal Character policy was pushed aside during the cabinet composition and one ethnic group took over all the security apparatus in this failed country? What are we reviewing? You can fool some of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
“We cannot review the illegal document called Nigerian constitution since Yoruba people have written to the United Nations and the first 90 days have expired. The Yoruba nation has decided to call for a referendum and there is no way we can now be discussing a review of the constitution that was fraudulently produced without approval through a referendum.”
North: referendum, power devolution
Prominent voices from the North, including the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) are demanding for devolution of power, as the National Assembly begins the move to review 1999 Constitution.
While both the ACF and the NEF emphasised the imperative of restructuring to address the fundamental changes like power devolution, fiscal federalism and electoral reforms, the CNG called for an alternative constitutional arrangement to satisfy Nigeria’s requirements of inclusive governance and provision of an agreeable framework to all its constituent parts to live together in harmony.
NEF’s Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed said: “The North welcomes any review of the constitution that substantially addresses the limitations that exist now and addresses how the future of Nigeria should be. We have to welcome changes because it is natural. The North recognises that there are serious problems in the way the nation is structured.
“However, we also believe that, both the executive arm of government and the National Assembly should recognise the fact that what Nigerians are expecting are far-reaching changes; the type of changes that address fundamentals, the nature of the federal system, a general review of the electoral process, devolution of powers, addressing the issues of security, whether we need to decentralize the police or not and fiscal federalism, issues about citizenship and indigenship. Those are fundamental to the manner in which we live.
“And we don’t want a situation where the impetus to this constitutional amendment should be linked to separatist movement; it should be done because of 95 per cent of Nigerians who believe in Nigeria, who believe the nation has a future, otherwise we will miss the point. We know those separatist agitators like Sunday Igboho will not show up at the National Assembly’s public hearing, because that is not what they are interested in; they are only interested in creating more problems for the country. So, we think we should better be prepared for serious-minded, genuine Nigerians who are interested in putting on the table serious and sound ideas.
“The problem is that since this National Assembly came into being in 2019, in conjunction with the Muhammadu Buhari-led executive, has given indications that it is not willing to undertake far-reaching changes that do not fit their agenda. What they don’t understand is that it is not up to them to set agenda for national change; they have no right to set agenda for Nigeria. Nigerians should set the agenda and the legislators and the executives as our servants should comply. They must be open-minded and prepared for people who would demand a lot more than just piecemeal and superficial amendment to the constitution.
“Restructuring is a very strong word but very clear, it is very strong and far beyond what the people at the National Assembly is used to. They are used to superficial and incremental amendment, which most times are shut down by the President. President Muhammadu Buhari shut down so many amendments initiated by the last National Assembly to improve the electoral process, to improve other key legislations just because he did not like such policies; we must put a stop to this.
“Restructuring does not mean different things to different regions, as it is erroneously reiterated; it simply means a desire to address the problems inhibiting the progress of the county. Inside this broad definition, you are likely to have nuances from regions that emphasise one element or the other. As far as the North is concerned, we have already put forward a number of issues; we are not opposed to fiscal federalism, which translates into a desire that a particular part of the country that produces asset of the country should retain a substantial part of what they produce. We have no problem with that; the North is rich. We have minerals; we have land water, and we can live on our own. So, we are not opposed to fiscal federalism.
“We are not opposed to restructuring of the 36 states structure, which is wasteful, which cannot produce any good governance. We spend a huge amount of money on the cost of maintaining this system. We want to see a return to a bigger region which have real power devolved from the centre. We in the NEF talk to people in the Southeast, Southwest, and every other zone; we don’t find major differences in our positions.”
The ACF said Nigeria must first agree to remain as a united entity before delving into considering a suitable structure for the country. Its National Publicity Secretary, Emmanuel Yawe said the group wants Nigeria restructured, but are somehow apprehensive about the agitation for separation from some quarters. He said: “We don’t want a situation where some Nigerians we call our brothers would now belong to another country and would now need a visa to go and see them. So, the ACF wants Nigeria to remain as one, even though, we want the structure modified.
“So, how do we achieve this? First, we want a referendum where we are going to decide whether Nigeria should remain as one country. If Nigerians decide that the country should remain as one, we can then decide on restructuring. This is because we cannot sit down at a table divide Nigeria, there is going to be war, and that is why we don’t want Nigeria to split.
“We believe too much power has been concentrated at the federal level. We believe that there are some aspects of our national life that are better managed at the federating units. There is too much power at the federal level, for instance, the police is too centralized. If you look at the El-Rufai report, it was an excellent report; we don’t know why the APC that set up the committee didn’t implement the report. I think we should take a second look at that report and most of our problems will be solved.”
Futile exercise?
Taking a different look at the issue, the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) said this round of effort at amending the constitution is bound to be another exercise in futility. Its Spokesman, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman said previous assemblies have made series of attempts that ended up as a waste of time and resources. Suleiman said: “The first and most obvious is when the credibility of the man in charge of the exercise, Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo Agege is in question, given his involvement with the mace scandal earlier in the life of last assembly.
“Another consideration that tends to erode confidence is that a large percentage of the members of the legislature who are expected to carry out this important assignment appears not to be conversant with governance in the first place and, in most cases, complete novices who are there to experiment and learn by chance and mistake. Routine or mundane issues such as screening and clearing of the executive’s nominees by the legislature, passage of national budgets, reviews of the constitution and a host of governance issues have become contentious and needlessly protracted owing to differences between the two arms of government.
“Divested from statecraft which is an important prerequisite, then any federal constitution, no matter how well crafted, will be rendered unworkable and it will collapse under the weight created by accumulated deficits, unfinished work, personal drawbacks and other artificially concocted deficiencies that will be like a deadweight on the whole system.
“The CNG is therefore convinced that Nigeria must look for an alternative constitutional arrangement in order to satisfy its requirements of inclusive governance and provide an agreeable framework to all its constituent parts to live together in harmony. This should fundamentally begin by holding a referendum to decide who and what actually constitutes Nigeria in the light of growing agitations for self-determination before thinking of embarking on any form of constitutional review.
“When this is done, then fresh exercise for putting up a constitution can commence at which critical questions about the extent to which powers should be centralized will inevitably arise to seek a balance on important issues such as the control of the police, the armed forces and other national security apparatuses, as well as the regulation of cross-regional boundary issues like control of rivers, lakes, dams, forests, and other assets.
“Then matters that are considered within the purview of the states or regions, such as education, health, sanitation, labour regulations, commerce, and a variety of others can also be divested from the federal list and invested with the lower structures of the state. This can then be ratified by a system of adoption that should be via delegates elected to a constitutional conference with powers to draft and adopt the document.
“Finally, the CNG sees the clamorous call for restructuring as merely centred around a return to a previous constitutional framework that seems to be ideal for the country’s needs and conditions in the 1960s, but likely not for 2021 and beyond.”
(The Nation)
