Nation Senate kills six-year tenure Posted by: Onyedi Ojiabor and Sanni Onogu, Abuja in Featured, News 5 hours ago •Legislators weaken NLC, TUC The Senate yesterday killed the proposal for six-year single tenure for president and governors as it voted on recommendations for further alteration of the 1999 Constitution. The lawmakers also rejected local government autonomy and mayoral status for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). It curiously voted ‘yes’ to make any woman eligible for marriage even if she is underage. It endorsed a proposal that Presidential assent shall no more be required for the purpose of altering the Nigerian Constitution. It also approved a proposal that a presidential or governor’s assent would not be required after a bill passed and transmitted to the president’s or governor had stayed for 30 days with the president or governor as the case may be. It granted financial autonomy to State Houses of Assembly. The Senate also endorsed first line charge for State Independent Electoral Commission, State Houses of Assembly, Auditor-General of the State and State Judiciary, but failed to approve first line charge for the Attorney-General . Before the historic voting began, Senate President David Mark reminded senators that they were on the threshold of history. Mark told the lawmakers, that for any clause to pass, 73 yes votes were needed. “I urge every Senator to vote according to his conscience. Every voting will accordingly be reflected on the votes and proceedings of the Senate. We have gone through this before and because of the importance of the issues slated for voting, we are not to resume debate again. You must, therefore, endeavour to vote according to your conscience,” Mark said. On presidential assent for Constitution amendment, the Senate voted that “for the purpose of altering the provisions of this Constitution, the assent of the President shall not be required.” In all, 95 senators endorsed the proposal while three opposed it. Clause 4 which sought the alteration of Section 29 of the Constitution almost threw works. In the upper chamber into turmoil. The Section is on renunciation of citizenship. It states (29)(1) “Any citizen of Nigeria of full age who wishes to renounce his Nigerian citizenship shall make a declaration in the prescribed manner for the renunciation. (4) For the purpose of subsection (1) of this section (a) ‘full age” means the age of eighteen years and above (b) any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age.” The Constitution review Committee recommended that the Section 29(4)(b) should be deleted. The Senate voted 75 ‘yes’ and 13 ‘no’ to delete the Section. The endorsement of the clause by the Senate became a battle between Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima (Zamfara West) and other senator. Yerima said the clause is against Islamic law and insisted that it should not be deleted. He noted that declaring maturity age for women is against Islamic law. He said the Constitution forbids the National Assembly from making law on Islamic matters. Yerima insisted that a second vote should be taken on the passed clause. Mark said he is not an expert on Islamic law and added that if Islamic scholars raise the same sentiment, it should be revisited. But Senator Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central) took up the matter from Yerima. He accused the Senate President of double standard. Mark took exception to the accusation and reiterated that he had been very consistent in the consideration of the clauses. He wondered why the issue should be made a personal matter. Following insistence by Yerima, Mark agreed that the clause should be revisited. Mark said, “Once more, because of the serious nature of the laws we make and because we want our actions to stand the test of time, we will revisit the issue raised by Yerima. “This is because of the sensitivity of issues that has to do with religion, we should revisit it so that we take another vote on it. “But Yerima is a member of the Constitution Review Committee, he should have raised the issue at that level.” Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu who chaired the review committee said that the clause has nothing to do with religion. Ekweremadu added that the Constitution Review Committee felt that a woman should be old enough to renounce Nigerian citizenship. He recalled that Yerima said the clause is unconstitutional at the review level but insisted that the clause has nothing to do with religion. A total of 99 Senators registered to vote on the controversial clause. The repeated vote showed that 60 Senators voted to retain the clause while 35 voted to delete it as recommended by the review committee. After the vote Mark said: “Once you are married, you are deemed to be of age whether you are one or two years it doesn’t really matter.” Immediately the clause was killed, there was outrage in the gallery as many spectators felt that the upper chamber had endorsed under age marriage. Yerima was later shouted down when he attempted to thank Senators for voting to retain the clause. On assent to a bill, the Senate passed alteration to Section 58 by inserting a new subsection “5A” which states: “Where the President neither signifies that he assents or that he withholds assent, the bill shall at the expiration of thirty days become law.” A total of 100 Senators registered to vote, 89 voted ‘yes’ while 11 voted ‘no’. The Senate also approved the alteration of the Section 100 by inserting a new subsection “5a” which reads: “Where the Governor neither signifies that he assents or that he withholds assent, the bill shall at the expiration of thirty days become law” On Section 81, financial autonomy to Attorney General of the Federation. A total of 100 Senators registered to vote. While 59 Senators voted that financial autonomy should be granted the Attorney General of the Federation, 41 voted ‘no’ The clause failed to pass. A total of 83 Senators voted ‘yes’ to grant the Auditor-General of the Federation, 16 Senators voted ‘no’ while two abstained. On Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Committee, 99 Senators voted ‘yes’ to grant it autonomy while two voted ‘no’. On National Human Rights Commission, the upper chamber voted 94 to six to grant the commission financial autonomy. The senate also approved that all labour matters would henceforth be handled at the state levels. Observers contended that this new development would weaken the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) at the national level. The clause which states that “Any person who has held office as 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 annual salary of the incumbent President or Deputy President of the Senate, Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives was passed with a vote of 86 ‘yes’ and 13 ‘no’ with one abstention. Mark jokingly said that the clause was endorsed ‘overwhelmingly.’ The Senate endorsed financial autonomy for State Independent Electoral Commission; State Houses of Assembly; Auditor-General of the State; and State Judiciary. But the lawmaker opposed first line charge Attorney General of State. The Senate voted 86 against,14 in favour and one abstention to nail the coffin of the clause on six year single tenure for President and Governors. On separation of the office of the Attorney General of the Federation from the office of Minister of Justice, the Senate voted 62 in favour and 35 against. The clause failed because at least 73 votes in favour were required. On direct payment to local governments from the Federation Account, 59 Senators voted in favour while 38 voted against while two abstained. The clause failed. The clause which sought to confer the power on the Attorney General to direct investigation in certain cases was killed with 62 Senators against and 31 in favour. The Senate killed the clause for Mayoral status for the FCT with 57 votes in favour, 39 against and two abstention. The Senate failed to remove the National Youth Service Corps Decree 1993 from the Constitution. It also failed to remove the Public Complaint Commission Act, National Security Agencies Act and the Land Use Act from the Constitution. It endorsed the changed Afikpo North and South Local Government Areas to Afikpo and Edda Local Governments. It also endorsed the change of Egbado North and Egbado South LGAs to Yewa North and Yewa South LGAs. Labour was deleted from the Exclusive List to the Concurrent List with 77 votes in favour and 17 against. Two Senators abstained. The Senate also voted in favour of Railways being placed on the Concurrent List. The votes tied at 72 Senators in favour and 23 against. Mark broke the tie by voting in favour of Railways going to the Concurrent List. The Lawmakers also removed pension matters from the Exclusive List but it failed to remove Prisons from the Exclusive List. Despite explanation from Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba and Senator Umaru Dahiru that the removal will solve the problem of prison congestion, the Senators voted against the removal. The Senate also voted against removing the Chief Justice of Nigeria and other serving Judicial Officers as Chairman and members respectively of the Federal Judicial Service Commission. Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Senator Umaru Dahiru said that the CJN, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, wrote to request the status quo be maintained. Ekweremadu also informed the Senate that the CJN wrote to say that she was not comfortable with the clause. He said that the clause is before the Senate to take a decision on the matter. Mark also said that not withstanding the letter of the CJN, the Senate will vote on the clause. The clause was defeated with a vote of 72 against and 26 in favour. Mark voted against the removal of the CJN as Chairman of Federal Judicial Service Commission. At the end of the voting, Mark thanked Senators and declared: “Today is a historic day in the history of Nigeria.” “We voted for those issues that we think will make democracy to go on and make democracy to mature.” He thanked the Senate Committee on Constitution Review saying: “What ever sentiments they expressed, we have put them to test today.” Mark told the Senate that today would be devoted for valedictory session for the late Senator Pius Ewherido
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 09:29:32 +0000
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