Nigeria @ 60: SAN, Ex-Lawmaker Join Call for Overhaul of 1999 Constitution

Propose Immunity for Heads of Court, Harmonisation of Judges’ Retirement Agendependent Prosecutors of Electoral Offenders, Visa ban

By Alex Enumah

As the nation celebrates 60 years of independence, the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS) and a former lawmaker, Honourable Ali Ahmad, have joined the call for a total overhaul of the 1999 Constitution, to put the nation on a sound path of peace and development.

President of the Centre, Professor Yemi Akinseye-George, SAN and Honourable Ahmad, in their different presentations noted that although Nigeria has reasons to celebrate at 60, however stated that, “our achievements in the last sixty years are far too small, compared with our potentials”.

Professor Akinseye-George argued that successive governments since 1999 have not lived up to expectation, because after six decades of self-rule, Nigeria is still grappling with problems of lack of basic infrastructure, disunity, nepotism, abuse of office and gross mismanagement of resources, hence, his support for the efforts of the National Assembly to introduce further alterations to the Constitution.

“We cannot stand idly by and watch with indifference, as efforts are again being made to introduce further amendments to the Constitution. While the preferred option is to overhaul the Constitution through a people-driven process of peaceful renegotiation and constitution reformation, or outright restructuring of the socio-political system, it appears that, for now, there is no political will on the part of the ruling elite to embark on such a revolutionary but necessary path.

“Yet there is no denying the fact that the 1999 Constitution is replete with several provisions which are antithetical to good governance and proper administration of justice”, he said.

Akinseye-George said as part of its contribution, the CSLS have proposed four amendments aimed strengthening administration of justice, and promoting accountability for electoral offences.

“Firstly, we propose amendments to reduce the workload of the Supreme Court. Secondly, we propose amendments that will improve the well-being and retirement benefits of Judges, including the removal in the dichotomy in the retirement age of High Court Judges and Apellate Justices.

“It is discriminatory that while some Judges must retire at 65, and others can serve till 70. This discrimination, which began under the Abacha regime, is uncalled for and unjustified.

“We propose an overhaul of the Code of Conduct Bureau, such that the Bureau should be made less susceptible to manipulation by the executive arm of government.

“We propose the establishment of the office of the Independent Prosecutor for electoral offences. The power of such a Prosecutor should not be subject to the powers of the Attorney-General, and executive immunity will no longer apply to electoral offences”, he said.

On his part, Ahmad, who was a former House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Justice, called for the separation of the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation from that of the Minister of Justice.

According to him, if Nigeria must make progress in her war against corruption, then it needs “an Attorney-General who is not too politically aligned as to be going to Aso Rock every week, in order to face the important role of upholding the rule of law”.
He also called for the provision of immunity for heads of court, to prevent them from becoming tools and puppets to the executive.

“Chief Justice of Nigeria, President of Court of Appeal, Chief Judges of State High Courts, and Chief Judge of Federal High Court, must no longer be removable under any guise.

“Although presently, you cannot remove them without approval of the legislature, this provision has been circumvented by the executive arm both at Federal and States levels, for at least about four times now.

“What one is proposing as the only way to protect presiding judicial officers from members of the Executive Branch who are bent on removing them, is to extend the immunity clause in Section 308(3) of the Constitution to include these seven presiding judicial officers. “With this in place, no politician can illegally remove or ridicule a presiding judicial officer without approval of the Legislature”, he said.

In the area of elections, Ahmad proposed that President and Governors, who currently have immunity from criminal prosecution, should have that immunity withdrawn where the allegation is that of conspiracy, participating or sponsoring electoral violence.

According to him, making politicians personally liable works very well in preventing election violence, “as evidenced by the recent ban by US, UK and EU countries. I will use this opportunity to urge these countries to extend this ban to Governors who will be conducting Local Government elections, henceforth. We all know that in Nigeria, few Governors have ever lost local government and councillorship elections, since 1999”.