Challenging the constitutional reform process

IT is obvious that the twin political siblings, constitution and constitutionalism are among the controversial and often abused issues in post-colonial Africa. The colonial state inherited from the colonial masters is undemocratic, and violent in its political, economic, and social processes. Most colonial constitutions failed to take into cognizance the values, cultures, customs of the indigents in developing such constitutions, this served as an impediment in evolvement of peoples constitution. With the dawning of political independence nothing changes except the Africanisation of the political machine, that is the transfer of political power from the white man to the domestic elites. The crisis with neocolonial state is that, it becomes a nanny state dictated from somewhere which consequently subverts prospects for democratistion in the country. Basing from this, the central concern of this piece is; what is constitution? What is constitutionalism? What are the ideal ways of emerging with a people oriented constitution in Nigeria? What are the bottlenecks toward achieving that? Constitution entails the body of laws instituted to govern a given society; it diagnoses the power of the political office holders, and specifies the parameters upon which the three arms of government could operate, on the basis of separation of power. As Montesquieu argued “the more the separation of power the better the government.” Based on this none of the arms of government would unnecessarily interfere on another’s business so as to maintain the smooth running of the political system. However this assertion has become a mirage in the Nigeria’s political processes, the executive hegemony is being established, the extent to which the desire of the president must be accepted and put forward for his approval. But the question to ponder over is; why does the power of the president overrides on matters?

The simple answer is, the legislatures have turn their job in to lucrative venture where their consent can be sold to Mr. President provided on matters bordering selfish intent must go politics. This informs the parallel that exists between the constitution and the lawmakers, who are supposed to be the custodians of defending the constitutional provision, this has consequently made the citizens of Nigeria to lack confidence on the lawmakers; people have now lost confidence on their representatives because they turned out to be representing the whims and caprices of Mr. president rather than the people who voted them in to power.

This brought us to the second issue, which is constitutionalism. It implies two issues: the process of constitution-making and the extent to which it is popular and democratic; secondly, it denotes making the constitution a living document for people to understand it, and deploying it in the defence of individual and collective right. In Nigeria and most African countries the emphasis has been on the constitution rather than constitutionalism. To what extent were the previous and present constitution making in the country become popular and democratic? And to what extent have the people had the exposure to deploy the constitution in defending their right. These are the important questions that need an answer.

The problem facing most African countries is lack of a process-led approach in constitution making, as well as the tendency to neglect the views of the common man, whose life is affected by the constitution. Constitutionalism becomes an elite affair, where technocrats, lawyers, politicians, retired military officers, business class are deployed to discuss the fate of the common man, making rules that cannot be understood by the common man. Therefore, what are the ideal ways of emerging with a legitimate constitution? Bottom-up approach and this entails the ability of the constitution-making committee to integrate the process of constitution-making to the common masses; draw their attention on the relevance of issue, using the language they understand thereby integrating their views in the process, so that the constitution will be from grassroots to the top, rather than vice versa. The second thing is that of democratising the process of making the constitution, so that people can gain access. There shouldn’t be security that scrutinise on who should enter and articulate his views and who should not. This participatory approach is very relevant in making the constitution valid and legitimate when it subsequently comes out. Subjection to debate; the controversial issues in the constitution should be subjected to debate, by involving the people in articulating and presenting their demands so that the entire citizens will constitute the panel of judges to decide on the desirability or otherwise of the issue at stake , through this there would be a referendum on Yes or No Question. For instance, if this is to be applied in Nigeria on the third term bid then the masses are to judge rather than a so-called voice vote presided over by (a former deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu. Critical examination of the constitution: the existing constitution should be critically examined drawing from the lessons and experiences of other African countries, this point buttress the fact that the existing constitution may have some shortcomings that needs reexamination and due appraisal, this is very crucial, unfortunately what we have in Nigeria is you only hear the issue of constitutional amendments when the incumbency wants to perpetuate on the throne or it wants to inject its political motive. It is glaringly clear that the aforementioned criteria have no place in the Nigerian experience with constitutionalism, rather the process remains inclusive and a theater for some selected elites to express themselves. take for instance the constitution of most African countries are products of constituent assemblies, parliamentary communities, special task force or tribunals or the work of a handful of lawyers or politicians, the Constitution becomes imposed rather than exposed and never subjected to popular debate or referenda. This becomes manifested in the following ways: inclusiveness: to buttress this point a former deputy Senate president,Mantu was quoted saying that a farmer has nothing to do with the constitution, this shows how inclusive, selective, militaristic, and egoistic the review process was at the end the constitution is imposed rather than exposed, obscure democratisation rather than prosper it Insincerity: actions are judged according to their intention, the question which many people asked is, if the third term bid is to be for the interest of Nigerians it has to be sensitive to the aspirations of the citizens, and would have been done since .why now? When the tenure of the incumbent regime is drawing to an end.

The environment is not secured, so as to side line the people, take for instance the sitting of the committee in the North West, it chooses Kasina State. It is obvious that Kano State is the heart of the North in all ramifications; it was boycotted for the reasons that would not be at the interest of the incumbency. First, the people of the state are known for their outright rejection of the bid coupled with the souring relationship between the president and some progressives in the state. It was even reported that even in Katsina State many people were interrupted by security men before they gain interest, among whom was the Former Minister of communication and erstwhile governor of old Kano State, the late Alhaji Muhammad AbubakarRimi. This development and others not reviewed here have shown failure to democratise access to the environment, which is a great impediment in developing a people oriented reform.

As noted earlier, a popular constitutional reform has to be articulated from the grassroots than channeled to the top; unfortunately,ours is an exception; the whims of the elites presides over. The elite’s theory of decision making is at work rather than the group theory. The former entails the extent to which those that made the decisions succeeded in championing it course by ensuring their views while the later, entails the notion which says the view of the group are the view to take in to cognizance in policy pursuit. So the bane of our reforms is it is tailored towards elite interest.The paper has reviewed the nature of post-colonial constitution making and its inclusiveness in taking peoples voice in to account whilst the attainment of political independence under the platter of gold, the constitution making in the post-colonial Nigeria continue to be insensitive to the yearnings and aspirations of the people, rather the process become entirely an elite affair which obstructs the prospects of democratistion in the country. The failure to deploy a bottom to top approach thereby integrating the people voice as well as with the undemocratic environment with which people to express themselves.

• Abdulra’uf is of the Department of Political Science, Bayero University, Kano