Senate Constitution Review C’ttee Pledges Electoral Reforms

• Red chamber recommits four rejected bills to committee

Damilola Oyedele in Abuja

The Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution has pledged commitment to its speedy amendment, to ensure reform of the nation’s electoral system, particularly to set a timeline for the conclusion of pre-election matters.

The committee Chairman and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu,  speaking at the end of the committee’s meeting yesterday, noted that the alteration would also reposition the local government system, devolve more powers to the states, and reform the judicial system.

He disclosed that experts working with the House of Representatives and the Senate Committees on the Constitution amendment project have already harmonised the positions of the two committees ahead of their joint retreat to vote, and adopt the proposals approval by the National Assembly, and ratification by the state assemblies.

Details of the meeting were made available in a statement issued by Ekweremadu’s Special Adviser (Media), Mr. Uche Anichukwu.

“The idea is for every pre-election matter to be filed not later than 14 days from the date of the occurrence of the event, decision or action being complained of in the suit. We are also looking at ensuring that judgment in every pre-election matter is delivered in writing within 180 days from the date of filing of the suit, while the appeal from a decision in a pre-election matter shall be filed within 14 days from the date of delivery of the judgment that is being appealed. An appeal from a decision of a court in a pre-election matter shall be heard and disposed of within 60 days from the date of filing of the appeal,” Ekweremadu said.

“Again, we seek to alter the section to provide that where a preliminary objection or any other interlocutory issue touching on the jurisdiction of the tribunal or court or on the competence of the petition itself is raised by a party, the tribunal or court shall suspend ruling thereon and deliver same at the stage of final judgment. This is to ensure that no court stays proceedings on account of an interlocutory issue,” Ekweremadu added.

He also explained that Sections 134(4) and (5), 179 (4) and (5) and Section 225 of the 1999 Constitution were proposed for amendment to extend the time for conducting presidential and Governorship re-run elections from seven to 21 days to allow the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) adequate time to prepare.

“The proposed amendments will also empower INEC to de-register political parties, which breach registration requirements or fail to win at least one of presidential, governorship, local government chairmanship elections or a seat in the national or state assembly election,” he explained.

Also, the proposed amendment to Section 65 would allow independent candidacy in order to expand the electorate’s choices.

The committee is also proposing an alteration of Sections 82 and 122 of the Constitution to reduce the period within which the President and Governor may authorise withdrawals from the Consolidated Revenue Fund in the absence of an Appropriation Act from six months to three months.

“We are also proposing an end to the prevailing share-all attitude by amending Section 162 of the Constitution to make provisions for 10 per cent of any amount, which is paid into the Federation Account, to be compulsorily saved for the future before any distributions to the respective levels of government; and such savings must not be tampered with for at least five years,” he said.

 He added that there are also plans to amend the Second Schedule, Part I of the Constitution, to restructure the Legislative Lists and ensure proper devolution of powers to allow the States the needed leverage and room to take initiatives for competitive development.

 On judicial reforms, he disclosed that the committee is proposing amendments to Section 233 of the Constitution to provide for the disposal of applications for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court by three Justices sitting in Chambers if they believe an oral hearing of the application is not required.

 Meanwhile, the Senate yesterday recommitted four bills for which assent were withheld by President Muhammadu Buhari, to the conference committees that worked on them, to consider the perceived inadequacies, for which the bills were rejected.

The bills are the National Assembly Budget and Research Office  bill 2017, Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria bill 2017, Dangerous Drugs Act (Amendment) Bill 2017 and Currency Conversion (Freezing) Orders Act 2017.

The Majority Leader of the Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North), while recommitting the bills,  recalled that the Dangerous Drugs (Amendement) Act was not signed into law by the president due to concerns regarding certain words and phrases reflected in the bill that may be inconsistent with some sections of the Principal Act.

Lawan also explained that assent was withheld on the Currency Conversion (Freezing) Orders Act due to  concerns regarding the modalities for the communication of asset forfeiture.

He added that the first and second bills were passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives, while the Directorate of Legal Services scrutinised the bills and raised fundamental issues that needed to be addressed before transmission to the president for assent.

“Aware that there is no defined procedure on the reconsideration of bills passed by the National Assembly that has not been transmitted to the president for assent,” he said.

The Senate voted to re-commit the bills and directed the committees to report back in one week.