NIGERIAN SENATE APPROVED INDEPENDENT CANDIDACY, LG AUTONOMY, OTHERS The Senate yesterday adopted the report of the conference committee of the National Assembly on the review of the 1999 constitution which provides for independent candidacy in elections and the scrapping of the State Independent Electoral Commissions, SIECs. The report, according to National Mirror newspaper was unanimously adopted, and provides for local government autonomy by providing for their funding, tenure, elections and clearly delineating their powers and responsibilities to ensure effective service delivery. The Senate also approved the establishment of the Office of the Auditor-General of the Local Government and the state Local Government Service Commission in order to insulate them from undue and counter-productive interference from state governments. Also to guarantee state autonomy and and effective service delivery, the lawmakers adopted the provision that authorises the funding of the state Houses of Assembly, auditor-general of the state and the attorney- general of the state directly from the state Consolidated Revenue Fund. With the adoption of the conference committee report on the constitution amendment by the Senate yesterday, the document will now be forwarded to the 36 states of the federation for their concurrence or otherwise. In the event that there are not up to 24 states of assembly (2/3) agreeing on any of the provisions, that aspect automatically dies or is selected as an amendment. The following are additional provisions were approved by the Senate as reported in National Mirror.................. The conversion of the right to education and right to health as fundamental rights in the constitution. The provision which authorises the President of the Senate to convene a joint meeting of the National Assembly to reconsider a money bill where the President withholds his assent. A mandatory provision for the President to attend a joint meeting of the National Assembly once a year to deliver a state of the nation address. A provision that would expands government agencies that will henceforth be directly funded from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federation. These include the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, national security agencies, the police and the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission. The amendment empowers the National Assembly and the state Houses of Assembly to prescribe sanctions, civil or criminal or both, for the failure, refusal or neglect to obey summons issued by a legislative house or a committee of any of the Houses. A provision establishing the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Attorney-General of a state as district from Minister of Justice and Commissioner of Justice. A provision which empowers the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to de-register political parties for non-fulfillment of certain conditions such as breach of registration requirements and failure to secure/win either a presidential, governorship, local government chairmanship or a seat in the national or state assembly. The proposal which extends the time for conducting presidential and governorship re-run election to 21 days instead of the seven days for both presidential and gubernatorial elections. The provision which confers exclusive jurisdiction on the Federal High Court for trial of election offences and the provision which provides that a court or tribunal shall not stay any proceedings on account of any interlocutory appeal. The proposals which decongested the exclusive lists of some of its present items and transferred same to the concurrent list. Pensions, railways, stamp duties and wages were transferred from the exclusive list to the concurrent list. However, arbitration, environment, health, housing, railways, road safety, land and agriculture and youth were included in the concurrent list. The Senate however rejected the provision that sought the elimination of the veil of immunity on serving governors and their deputies and the president and his vice.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 09:28:51 +0000
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