Congratulations Nigerians at Home and Abroad!
Aderemi Ojikutu
legislators. We can be sure that the Presidency has more tricks up its
sleeve. Our lawmakers have become legislative heroes. I serve you this
aggregation from the stable of The Guardian Newspapers, as a symbol of
the burial rites for TTA.
Reps drop amendment bill
* Ali condemns wholesale rejection of bill
* Ogbeh alleges N10b bribe over third term
* Buhari calls for probe of allegations
From Saxone Akhaine (Kaduna) and Adamu Abuh (Kano), John-Abba
Ogbodo, Abuja, Lawrence Njoku Enugu, Isa Abdulsalami, (Jos)
THE final burial rites of the constitutional amendment bill which
would have secured an elongation of President Olusegun Obasanjo's
tenure were performed in the House of Representatives yesterday with
the Speaker, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, declaring officially that the
issue was dead.
The camp of the lawmakers who are against tenure elongation
started the ceremony about thirty minutes to the take-off of the day's
plenary session when all of them entered the chamber decked in white
dresses and each carrying as many national flags as possible. Led by
Professor Sola Adeyeye from Osun State, the group sang a dirge for the
"death" of the third term project and chorused some victory songs for
their triumph over their pro-third term colleagues.
At 2. 40 p.m. when the principal officers, led by the Speaker,
entered the chamber, the anti-third term lawmakers welcomed them with
the flags shouting 'winner! winner!!' When the Speaker was about taking
his seat, the excited anti-third term representatives burst into
singing but this time, it was the National Anthem, with their flags
competing for attention in the air. The flags were later extended to
their pro-third term colleagues.
Having gauged the mood of the House, the Speaker decided to make
some remarks about the constitution amendment bill, starting with the
status of the bill. "Honourable members, yesterday, the Senate laid the
matter of the constitution amendment bill to rest. In view of that, the
bill is hereby withdrawn from the chamber", the Speaker said. A member
from Lagos State and chieftain of the anti-third term group, Femi
Gbajabiamila, noted that there should be a motion to formally withdraw
the bill but the Speaker declared: "You don't withdraw something that
is dead." At this juncture, the anti-third term group screamed
excitedly and shook one another.
Sensing that the jubilation might create some bad blood, Masari
said: "I want to remind you about my speech when we were about to start
the debate; that in this House, we are always united and in view of
that, there is no victor, no vanquished."
Reacting to the development in the National Assembly, the
Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD) alleged that the sum of N10
billion was spent in one week on the third term project by the
promoters to get the lawmakers to endorse it. He stressed that instead
of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other
security agencies to harass the presiding officers of the National
Assembly over the allegation made against them to distract attention
from the debate, they should focus attention on the movement of huge
cash over the third term agenda.
The chairman of the technical committee of the party, Chief Audu
Ogbeh who made the allegation at a press conference yesterday also
alleged that about N4 billion was contributed by two governors in the
South-South geopolitical zone of the country to the third-term project
vowing that they would be brought to judgment. "On Thursday, the 4th of
this month, the Wuse Zone 4 branch of a new generation bank was turned
into a centre for the distribution of the N50 million bribe-for-third
term money. At about 6.p.m, after it officially closed to its normal
customers, the bank opened its doors to this special group who
continued to troop in with assorted luxury vehicles defying a heavy
downpour of rain, just to grab their own share of the loot", he
alleged.
Urging the security agencies to investigate the alleged bribe
over third term, Ogbeh said; 'We are aware that there are laws in place
regulating the amount of money that can be deposited or withdrawn from
banks and any amount in excess of such limits are to be reported to the
appropriate regulatory and statutory authorities such as NDLEA, EFCC,
CBN, etc. The banks allegedly involved in these transfers, supervision
and distribution of the billions of Naira involved in this bribery
scandals must tell Nigerians whether they made appropriate reports and
returns to the relevant authorities as required by the laws of the
land. The nation is equally eagerly awaiting the result of the
investigations of the NDLEA, ICPC, EFCC, SSS and indeed, the Nigeria
police on this matter. Otherwise, the heads of these organisations can
no longer lay claim to any authority to continue in office, and in
addition, they should tender unreserved apology to Nigerians'.
The former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) also said that the huge amount of money reportedly withdrawn from
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) within the period lent credence to
the claims of bribery just as he also said he had a discussion with a
senator who corroborated the allegations.
Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), Senator Ahmadu Ali, yesterday chided the Senate for dumping the
constitution amendment bill.
He described the Upper House as a bunch of shameless and
inconsiderate people.
However, former presidential candidate of the All Nigerian
Peoples Party (ANPP), Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), has urged the
National Assembly to probe the bribery allegations levelled against
some of its members.
Speaking in an interview with the Hausa Service of the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) monitored in Kaduna on Tuesday night,
Ali lamented that the Senate did not even take into consideration the
other 115 clauses contained in the bill, especially the issue of
creation of new states.
He said: "The Senate should not look at a clause that the
opposition doesn't want and throw away the entire bill containing other
113 clauses. Because there are so many things people want in the
constitutional amendment.
"Since the Tafawa Balewa era when the defunct Mid-West region was
created, no democratic government has been able to create any state;
only military regimes created states. This time around, there is
opportunity for creation of new states, particularly in the South-East,
which has been agitating for additional states. Now, the entire bill
has been thrown away and the South-East feels cheated," Ali added.
He continued: "But that was a shameless and selfish act. The
Senate is shameless. I was a senator three times hence I know what
ought to be done. In this matter, the Senate should have picked the
clauses the people want and drop the rest. But the entire bill was
thrown away just like that. It is lack of shame and lack of
consideration.
"Imagine the matured step taken by the House of Representatives
where the bill was moderated. But the Senate, because they don't want a
clause or to work, they were only making useless and cacophonous
noises, they did the worthless work and dispersed shamelessly," he
added.
However, Buhari while reacting in the same medium stated that he
was thrilled by the action of the Senate, which could best be described
as victory for democracy and woeful failure for enemies of democracy.
He described the haste to amend the constitution at the twilight of the
administration as unpatriotic and selfish.
"The entire process was deceitful since it was meant to favour a
single individual. With what happened at the National Assembly, we can
now move forward. Let a new crop of leaders emerge at the 2007 polls
who will then set in motion the proper process of amending the
constitution. Besides, why the haste in amending the constitution if
not for selfish purpose? Buhari queried.
He also called on the National Assembly to set up high-powered
panel of enquiry to investigate the bribery allegations levelled
against some of its members. He added: "This should be done immediately
even as the EFCC has pledged to investigate the matter."
Meanwhile, speaking with The Guardian, the leader of the
Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Alhaji Balarabe Musa,
called on President Olusegun Obasanjo to ensure proper funding of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to commence the
process of next year's election.
However, he warned that should the President fail to do so
immediately, the only safety valve or face-saving device will be for
him to resign honourably and set up a government of national unity to
conduct the next polls.
"We now call on Obasanjo to know that Nigerians have decided and
he should not under any circumstance try to reverse the decision of the
National Assembly. If he tries to do that, he will be setting himself
against all Nigerians and he is going to be the loser. He should now
begin to handover power on May 29, 2007", he stressed.
Also yesterday, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)
faulted the blanket rejection of the proposed constitution review.
"The lawmakers should have isolated the vexatious clause and
concentrated on debates on the other provisions," APGA's chairman,
Chief Victor Umeh, stated.
But to the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Secretary-General, Col. Joe Achuzia
(rtd), the situation needed to be studied properly, so "no comments for
now."
However, Umeh expressed sadness that the furore over the third
term imbroglio had made the legislators to abandon the major problems
affecting the country, which needed to be addressed.
The APGA factional chairman, who spoke with journalists in Enugu,
said that much as he welcomed the Senate's rejection of the proposal to
extend the tenure of the President and the governors, he was very
unhappy that the legislators also threw away the other 115 proposals
which addressed the fundamental issues affecting the progress, peace
and stability of the country.
Such issues, he said, included the proposed review of the
derivation formula to address the yearnings of the Niger Delta people
and the issue of the creation of a sixth state for the South-East zone,
as well as the removal of Section 308 of the constitution that provides
immunity for Executive office holders against prosecution for
corruption while in office.
Said he: "I am very unhappy that the entire amendment bill was
thrown out by the Nigerian Senate. What we expected the senators to do
was to go through the bill clause by clause and drop the ones that are
defeated by the majority while allowing others that are desirable to
the majority to succeed. But instead, they decided to throw all of them
away."
"One is at a loss as to how the political tension in the Niger
Delta region can be contained by the 13 per cent derivation in the
constitution when we expected that it would be raised to at least 20
per cent.
The people of the South-East will be denied an additional state
and more local government areas that would have helped them bridge the
gap existing in the present federal structure", he added.
He observed that the House of Representatives had handled the
matter better by expunging the third term issue while allowing the
other aspects of the bill to remain, but regretted that the House alone
cannot pass a law.
Umeh, however, commended the National Assembly for handling the
debates on the bill transparently, stressing that this had made the
outcome acceptable to all Nigerans.
"We pray that we continue to witness such civilised democratic
practices because if anybody transparently suffers defeat, he will have
no option than to accept it", he added.
Also reacting, Mr. Gabriel Ofodile Okafor (SAN) said he felt
"good and bad" over the outcome.
Speaking with The Guardian yesterday, in Jos, Plateau State,
Okafor said he felt bad because Nigeria is practising democracy, adding
that the issue of tenure elongation had been a very bad issue right
from the outset.
"Because if you cannot change the rules of the game while the
game is on, you cannot change it midway.
"When you think of tenure elongation to benefit the incumbent, I
think that cannot be accommodated in any democracy. But I feel bad
because there are other 115 amendments. So, what has happened to those
ones?"
According to him: "You do not throw away the baby with the dirt
water. So, what has happened to all those laudable amendments? There
are so many of them like resource control, increase in derivation
funds, the issue of creation of states, the issue of first line change
of finance for National Assembly, the issue of geo-political zones, the
issue of rotation of governors in the states according to the
senatorial zones. All those have been thrown away."
He explained that what the National Assembly should have done
after throwing away the issue of tenure elongation was to continue with
the other parts of the bill.
"I think they were too emotional about the whole thing because
apart from the third term elongation, there were other laudable things
which needed to be amended. So, how can you throw away the whole thing
because of one issue out of 116..? Only one issue was contentious. They
did not debate others. And this is very unfortunate anyway."
The pioneer National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), Chief Solomon Lar, declined to comment on the issue, saying he
would do that after the whole problem had been resolved.