Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Review of the Constitution, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has asked those arguing that the amendments need the assent of President Goodluck Jonathan before taking effect, to head for the Supreme Court for the interpretation of Section 9 of the 1999 Constitution.
He told journalists at a breakfast meeting on Friday, in Abuja that the section was clear on the process of amending the Constitution.
He said the National Assembly followed what the Constitution says, and not the opinions of certain individuals.
Section 9 of the 1999 Constitution reads, ”(1) The National Assembly may, subject to the provision of this section, alter any of the provisions of this Constitution.
(2) An Act of the National Assembly for the alteration of this Constitution, not being an Act to which section 8 of this Constitution applies, shall not be passed in either House of the National Assembly unless the proposal is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of all the members of that House and approved by resolution of the Houses of Assembly of not less than two-thirds of all the States.
(3) An Act of the National Assembly for the purpose of altering the provisions of this section, section 8 or Chapter IV of this Constitution shall not be passed by either House of the National Assembly unless the proposal is approved by the votes of not less than four-fifths majority of all the members of each House, and also approved by resolution of the House of Assembly of not less than two-third of all States.
(4) For the purposes of section 8 of this Constitution and of subsections (2) and (3) of this section, the number of members of each House of the National Assembly shall, notwithstanding any vacancy, be deemed to be the number of members specified in sections 48 and 49 of this Constitution.”
Ekweremadu said, ”If the Constitution wanted the President to assent to the amendments before they are affective, it would have stated it expressly.
”There is no advanced democracy where the President signed constitutional amendments into law. We are copying the United States model and they have a history of constitutional amendments, but there has never been any time their President signed amendments before they became effective.
”The provision of Section 9 did not provide for the assent of the President to pass the amendments. Any person who thinks otherwise should go to the Supreme Court.”
Ekweremadu, who doubles as the Deputy President of the Senate, also rejected calls from some quarters that the 2011 general election should be postponed, using the doctrine of necessity.
According to him, what may appear to be the wish of Nigerians can turn out to be a problem, as there may be insinuation that the National Assembly is trying to elongate the tenure of political office holders.
He said, ”These amendments cannot be suspended without a constitutional amendment providing for such action. We don‘t want people to be crying ”third term,” so if they are speaking, let them speak louder.”
He said the NASS had removed all obstacles on the way of the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct free and fair elections next year.
According to him, the amendments to the Electoral Act are good enough to allow INEC prepare adequately for the elections.
Ekweremadu, however, said that INEC had all the time to prepare the voter register, but failed to do so until the last minute.
”If we continue like this, we may have the same problem in 2015. If INEC were to be alive to its responsibilities, it would have prepared the voter register before now,” he said.
He said the proposed amendments started by the present National Assembly may not be finished, but the process would continue in the next National Assembly.
Ekweremadu added that the legislature would put in place a legal provision that would ensure that the process continued without having to be repeated when the new NASS takes over.
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