New Constitution Ready In May

ABUJA April 28, (THEWILL) - The National Assembly has assured that the nation will get an amended Constitution for implementation before the end of May.

Deputy Speaker Usman Nafada who is also Chairman of House of Representatives ad hoc Committee on the Review of the Constitution stated this today (Wednesday) at the National Assembly.

He also announced that Nigerians in Diaspora will not have the opportunity of voting in 2011 elections.

Nafada also expressed displeasure on the voting direction of his colleagues on some proposals saying that they were influenced by their state governors to reject a clause seeking to outlaw the use of indictment by a judicial Panel of Inquiry to disqualify candidates for elections.

Assuring that the nation will get a new Constitution in May, Nafada said the Senate and the House of Representatives will before the end of next week meet at a Joint Conference Committee to harmonize the areas of differences in their amendments, for transmission to the State Houses of Assembly for endorsement.

He said the National Assembly has been consulting with the State legislature and assured a speedy endorsement by the state legislative houses to enable the National Assembly take third reading and final passage of the amended Constitution before the end of May.

On the issue of Nigerians in the Diaspora voting in the 2011 election, the Deputy Speaker said such is not feasible, according to him, the nation does not have enough resources to take care of logistics and equipments for such exercise for Nigerians all over the world.

Stating that the move by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct elections in some foreign countries is not backed by any law, Nafada said such could be possible in the nearest future.

However expressing displeasure on the rejection of the recommendation of his committee to outlaw the use of indictments by a Judicial Panel of Inquiry set up by the Executive to disqualify candidates, Nafada said such indictments are used by some state governors to stop perceived political opponents.

He averred that the decision of the lawmakers was influenced by political godfathers including state governors.

According to him, "We are politicians. We have godfathers. I can see from the way the voting took place yesterday (Tuesday) that some were voting for their sitting governors. They were doing that because maybe the governor of their state has issued a white paper on somebody and they do not want that to be invalidated. They want that white paper to remain valid. And you cannot say they are wrong because as politicians they can vote the way they like. Some are planning to issue white papers on others, so if you vote in favour of the deletion they will not have the opportunity to do that. That was why they were voting the way they were voting and it is all politics."

Nafada’s Committee had recommended the deletion of sections 107 (1) (h) 182 (1) which provided for the use of the indictment to disqualify candidates for State House of Assembly and Governorship respectively with sections 66 (1) and 137 (i) which provided for the disqualification of candidates for National Assembly positions and the President respectively using such indictments.