Constitution amendment report: Unelected LG councils to lose funds to FG •Senate President, Speaker, their deputies to get life pension

THE report of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review, which was submitted to the Senate on Tuesday, has affirmed the power of the Federal Government to seize funds belonging to local governments where democratically elected executives are not in place.

The Federal Government, under President Olusegun Obasanjo, had, between 2006 and 2007, withheld funds belonging to local governments in Lagos State, due to the decision of the state government to create new local governments.

But when the issue was adjudicated upon by the Supreme Court, the court ruled that the Federal Government had no power to seize the funds, while also stating that the process of local government creation embarked upon by the state was inchoate.

The administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua eventually refunded the seized funds belonging to Lagos councils.

But the Senate has moved to strengthen the operation of system of democratically elected governments at the local government levels,  by proposing amendments to Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

Whereas the existing constitution indicated that funds standing to the credit of local governments are to be paid to the states and local government joint account, the Senate is proposing direct payment of funds to the local governments.

The proposed amendment to Section 162(5) read: “Any amount standing to the credit of local government in the Federation Account shall be allocated and paid directly to the local governments for their benefit on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly.”

Section 162(6) read: “The amount standing to the credit of a local government without a democratically elected local government council shall be withheld until there is a democratically elected local government council in such local government.”

The Senate report also proposed an amendment to Section 84 of the Constitution by inserting a new Section 5A, to guarantee pensions for presiding officers of the Senate and House of Representatives, who are not impeached from their positions.

The new Section 84(5A) read: “Any person who has held the position of 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 salary of the incumbent President or Deputy President of the Senate, Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.”

‘Why elevated VPs, dep govs can’t succeed their deceased bosses’
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has explained why the proposed constitutional amendment sought to stop a vice-president or deputy governor from seeking election after completing the tenure of a deceased president or governor.

Ekweremadu, who doubles as the chairman, Senate Committee on Constitution Review, said anybody who wanted to perform could do so as a deputy and within a timeframe and not when he was re-elected.

He made this known, on Thursday, while answering questions from members of the Senate Press Corps on the need for further clarrifications on the proposed amendments in the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

Explaining why the committee also recommended a single term tenure for the president or governor, Ekweremadu said it was done to avoid the heating up of the polity, often associated with the issue of a second term.

“If, for instance, in the unlikely event that the president dies and the vice-president takes over, what we are trying to avoid will still come to us; the issues and and crises and all the schemings that goes with trying to take a second term.

“I don’t believe that the number of years one spent in office as president translates to performance. The late General Murtala Mohammed was only in office for six months, but he is still being remembered,” he said.

He also described as untrue, the insinuation that the committee deliberately denied the people of the opportunity to have new states by not spelling out to them the constitutional requirements.

He said neither he nor the members of the committee had any apology over the exclusion of creation of new states in the proposed amendments.

“I didn’t write the constitution. It is a public document which agitators for new states ought to have read before coming up with their requests.

“If, as a student, you didn’t read your book and you failed in your examination, you cannot blame the teacher. They are supposed to have read the constitution thoroughly to know the requirements,” he said.

He also said the committee strongly believed that constitutional amendment did not require presidential assent.

He said all that was needed to pass a bill into law was two-thirds majority, adding that the essence was to remove ambiguities.

He cited the example of the United States of America (USA) where he said a bill became law if the president did not give his assent after 30 days.

On the issue of state police, Senator Ekweremadu reaffirmed his belief in decentralised policing, saying it remained the best global practice.

He, however, said as much as he made his view known, his colleagues on the committee held that Nigeria was not yet ripe for state or decentralised police.

He said while they believe that a decentralised police system may come into place in the future, they recommended the restructuring of the present centralised system of policing.

Senator Ekweremadu also said state houses of Assembly, state independent electoral commissions and state judiciary were put in the firstline charge because they were critical institutions of democracy that needed to be strenghtened financially and independent of the executive.

He said diaspora voting was left out of the proposed amendment because the Senate wanted to be sure that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had put in place appropriate measures to ensure the conduct of good elections.