Restructuring: The task before the National Assembly

While the National Assembly was away on annual recess, the polity was awash with intensified campaigns for restructuring. Surely the lawmakers will have their hands full on resumption. Associate Editor, TAIWO ADISA, periscopes the issues awaiting the lawmakers’ attention as they resume plenary on Tuesday.

The National Assembly went on its annual recess in July. It was at the heat of the restructuring debate. They had just voted down two key components of restructuring contained in the constitution amendment bills during the voting exercises in the two chambers. The Devolution of Powers Bill and the Land Use Act amendment bill were both rejected by the Senate and the House of Representatives, fuelling agitations the National Assembly was averse to the restructuring agenda.

While they were away, the debate has assumed a different dimension as the nation is practically quaking under the intensity of the heated debate.

But the leaders of the National Assembly immediately felt the pressure shortly after the voting exercise that threw away the Land Use Act and Devolution of Powers bills. Senate President Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, and Senate Leader, Senator Ahmed Lawan, were some in the top echelon of the National Assembly who hinted at the possibility of a revisit of the restructuring bills.

NASS and restructuring

Voting on the 33 items slated for amendment in the fourth alteration of the 1999 Constitution bill currently before the lawmakers was the catalyst for the ongoing variegated debate on restructuring, while a good number of the proposed amendments sailed through in the two chambers, key aspects of the bill that related one way or the other to restructuring and devolution of powers failed to secure the needed two-thirds votes.

The defeated items included the Devolution of Powers bill, the Land Use Act Amendment bill and the bill seeking adjustment in the identity of some local government councils and the status of women bills, which seek 35 per cent affirmative action in the appointment of women to public offices.

In the wake of the decision by NASS to shut down issues of restructuring, voices of dissent went abroad. The Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere; the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Southern Leaders Forum, the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and the Middle Belt groups have all voiced out clearly against the status quo in the polity. They insisted at different fora that restructuring the polity is inevitable.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who returned to Nigeria in August after spending some 103 days on medical examination in the United Kingdom, added his voice to the raging debate in a nationwide broadcast when he told the proponents to direct their agitations to either the National Assembly or the National Council of States. He said that the unity of Nigeria was settled.

In an immediate response to Buhari’s challenge, the southern leaders of thought met in Lagos and insisted that the unity of the country was not settled. They insisted that only restructuring would ensure the nation’s development.

Challenge from southern leaders

While reacting to the national broadcast by President Buhari in August, the Southern Leaders Forum (SLF) insisted that only a restructured Nigerian polity would survive the vagaries of the 21st century.

The leaders, including Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe (rtd), Professor Joe Irukwu (SAN), John Nwodo; Gen. Ike Nwachukwu (rtd); Prof Ben Nwabueze; Senator Kofoworola Bucknor- Akerele, Chief Supo Shonibare and Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga, among others released a communiqué, after a closed door meeting in Lagos in which they insisted on restructuring.

Other leaders at the meeting included a former director-general of the Department of State Service (DSS), Chief Albert Horsfall; president of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nwodo; former president of Ohanaeze, Professor Joe Irukwu; former Minister of Information and Culture, Chief Walter Ofonagoro, and the National Coordinator, Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, Otunba Gani Adams; a chieftain of NADECO, Professor Adebanji Akintoye; Ohanaeze chieftain, Chief Guy Ikokwu; Mr. Denzik Kentebe, and Colonel Tony Nyiam (rtd).

The communique entitled: ‘Only restructuring will Ensure the Unity, Peace and Development of Nigeria’ was read by the national publicity secretary of Afenifere, Mr Yinka Odumakin.

It indicated that the president’s attempt to play down the demand for the renegotiation of Nigeria was untenable.

The communique read in part: “The president expressed his disaffection about comments on Nigeria while he was away that question our collective existence as a nation and which he said have crossed the red lines. Against the background of the threat to treat hate speech as terrorism, we see a veiled threat to bare fangs and commence the criminalisation of dissenting opinions in our national discourse.

Experience worldwide has shown that any attempt to deal with dissent by force usually drives it underground, which makes it much more dangerous and difficult to deal with.

“We should have learnt a lesson or two from Boko Haram, which was an open organisation before the state drove it underground, and we are still under its reign of terror despite official claim that it has been technically defeated or degraded.

As elders, who believe that it is better to seek solutions to problems. We appeal that we must engage in social engineering fully aware that globalisation has made it very difficult to use repressive tactics to suppress opinions.

“The claim that Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable is untenable. Every country is a daily dialogue, and there is nothing finally settled in its life. All the conferences held after independence on constitutionalism are all forms of negotiations. There is no peaceful coexistence that is not about negotiations in a plural society.

“We acknowledge the President’s admission that there are legitimate concerns in the land. That is commendable. We, however, disagree with his take that Nigeria is a federation. Nigeria ceased to be a federation since 1966 after the first coup. The turning of Nigeria into a unitary constitution which is not conducive to peace and development in a multi-ethnic country is what the military-imposed 1999 constitution, which lied against itself with the ‘we the people’, is all about. This is the taproot of the crisis of nationhood in Nigeria.”

The SLF said that it agreed with Buhari that the National Assembly and Council of State are legitimate and appropriate bodies for national discourse, but insisted: “while we do not dispute that these are legal bodies, we insist they are not appropriate bodies to discuss the social contract that could bind us together as a nation state.

“While the composition of the National Assembly is clearly jigged and indeed one of the bodies to be restructured, the Council of State is not open to Nigerians for any discourse. If any discourse is to take place on constitutional changes within the democratic framework, Mr President is the one who has the responsibility to initiate the process.”

The southern leaders identified the crisis of rampaging Fulani herdsmen as one issue that has made restructuring inevitable.

They SLF said: “We are equally miffed that the president talks about the serial onslaughts by AK-47-wielding Fulani herdsmen against defenceless farmers as a conflict between two quarrelling groups.

“In the last two years, the Fulani herdsmen have become much more ferocious in their attacks against farmers in the south and middle belt areas of the country with security forces shying away from enforcing law and order. To present the various onslaughts on farmers by these herdsmen as ‘two fighting’ would portray the president as taking sides with the aggressive Miyeti Allah.”

SLF further called on the president to realise that “the country is in a very bad shape at the moment and requires statesmanship and not ethnic, religious and political partisanships. This is the time to renegotiate Nigeria along federal lines negotiated by our founding fathers to stem the tide of separatist feelings and agitations.

“This is why we do not accept that it portrays the president in a favourably light to be away for a long period, only to return to a badly fractured polity and avoid promoting a new dialogue for a better, just, inclusive and peaceful country,” it stated.

The back and forth between the Presidency and the SLF did not end there as President Buhari’s spokesmen equally responded to the SLF, declaring that the president could not restructure the polity by fiat.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said in a statement that Buhari has no power to impose restructuring on the country by military diktat, adding that the National Assembly members were the elected representatives of the people who can handle agitations for restructuring and other constitutional changes.

He said that in a democracy, changes don’t happen on a whim “immediate effect” mentality of the military era.

Trying to play the advocate for the National Assembly in a way, Shehu said: “The country’s parliament is ready and willing to discuss all issues but the pundits are more interested in TV and newspaper headlines. Threats don’t work in a democracy. Democracy requires planning and proper process. Issues are resolved through established processes, not by abuses, insults or irresponsible statements.”

Ibadan declaration, 1963 Constitution and Restructuring

Following on the heels of several engagements of the SLF, the Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo, which dissected the constitution amendment process in the National Assembly and President Buhari’s August national address, the Yoruba from states of the South-West, Kwara, Kogi, Edo and Delta gathered in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, to deliberate on what is called the Yoruba standpoint on restructuring.

On resumption, the National Assembly will equally be confronted with the report of the Ibadan summit on restructuring. The meeting, which ratified the Yoruba standpoint on restructuring, affirmed the need to return to 1963 Republican Constitution as a measure to kickstart Nigeria’s development.

The summit, held on September 7 and which had in attendance delegates from the South-East, the South-South and the Middle Belt recommended a return to the 1963 Constitution, which guaranteed the existence of four regional governments and a revenue sharing formula that enabled the states to operate freely, while enhancing healthy competition.

The communique proposed “That Yoruba insist that Nigeria must return to a proper federation as obtained in the 1960 and 1963 constitutions. This has been our position since 1950 Ibadan conference, and developments in Nigeria over the last 50 years reinforce our conviction.

“That Yoruba are clear that restructuring does not mean different things to different people other than that a multi-ethnic country like Nigeria can only know real peace and development if it is run ONLY along federal lines.

“That the greatest imperatives of restructuring Nigeria is to move from a rent-seeking and money-sharing anti-development economy to productivity by ensuring that the federating units are free to own and develop their resources. They should pay agreed sums to the federation purse to implement central services.

“That the federating units-whether states, zones or regions must themselves be governed by written constitution to curb impunity at all levels.”

Reports already indicate that the South- East, the South-South and the Middle-Belt are also working on dates on which they will float such grand summits to arrive at clear standpoints for restructuring on the polity.

It is becoming a truism that the National Assembly can no longer evade questions of restructuring and what it is to determine is the question of time. Can the issue be taken up alongside the ongoing constitution amendment? That is the question the lawmakers would have to confront on resumption.

The Constitution amendment Process

On resumption on Tuesday, the National Assembly will have to decide when to transmit the Constitution Amendment Bill to the Houses of Assembly. The national legislators in July voted on 33 amendment bills, out of which 29 scaled the required huddle. Those items that scaled the two-thirds majority vote huddle would have to be harmonised and transmitted to the 36 state assemblies for the final round of voting. Any of the items that secures the nod of 24 state assemblies will then make it back to the National Assembly for inclusion in the amended constitution. The lawmakers are to determine the schedules for that transmission upon resumption.

One of the decisions before the lawmakers is whether to include the emerging issues in the restructuring debate in the ongoing process or kick-start another process altogether.

IPOB and ethnic agitations

In June, the Senate passed a motion supported by the entire chamber on the need for unity and peaceful coexistence in Nigeria.  That was at a time when the polity was gripped by rising tension of instability. On resumption, the lawmakers will have to confront the decision of the federal government to proscribe the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and the threats of division in the polity. There should be no fear they will rise to defend the unity of Nigeria any day.

Budget 2018 Process

The federal government had recently given its commitment to delivering the 2018 budget to the National Assembly this October. The plan is to ensure the lawmakers pass the budget before the end of 2017, such that it could come into force by the first day of the New Year. If that promise will materialise, the National Assembly should get the Medium Term Economic Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Strategy Paper(FSP) on resumption. The MTEF/FSP are the prerequisites for the incoming budget in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.

PIB, Electoral Reforms Bill

The lawmakers will also be concerning themselves with the passage process of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and the Electoral Reforms Bill, among several others.  The Senate has passed the governance side of the PIB while two other segments of the bill, the fiscal side and the host community aspect are awaiting the final legislative work in the Red Chamber. But the Green Chamber took a different approach and had decided to take the bill as an entity. It is expected to resume the process on resumption.

The House is also set to pass the Electoral Reforms Bill 2017 which will set the tone for the 2019 general elections. The Senate passed the bill in June but the process must await the report of the House of Representatives before it can be transmitted for presidential assent.

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