New Constitution To Be Sent To Attorney General For Circulation

ABUJA, July 20, (THEWILL) - The Deputy Speaker and Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, Hon. Usman Bayero Nafada has disclosed that the amended Constitution is now operational and would be transmitted to the Attorney General of the Federation for circulation to ministries, departments and agencies of government (MDA’s).

He said with the resolution of the 36 State Houses of Assembly submitted to the National Assembly, no further work is required to be done on the document except compiling a copy since the altered clauses are now law.

The clarification by the Deputy Speaker came on the heels of an observation by Hon. Cyril Maduabum (PDP, Anambra) that the resolutions from the State Assemblies on the amended constitution would have to be brought to the floor for endorsement to become law.

The Deputy Speaker explained that any clause adopted or passed by the State Houses of Assembly and returned to the National Assembly has already become law and does not need further debate or endorsement by the House.

He said the controversy been generated on the fate of the amended constitution was unnecessary as the misunderstanding arising from the submission of the resolution by State Assemblies was due to misinterpretation of section 9 of the 1999 Constitution.

Section 9 of the 1999 Constitution states that "an Act of the National Assembly for 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-third majority of all the members of that House and approved by resolution of the Houses of Assembly of not less than two-third of all the states."

"Honourable colleagues, this is just a matter of understanding. I believe the lawyers have a way of interpreting laws but no matter what, we have done out work and we have our consultants. We believe we have finished our work and what we may do is to send a clean copy of the amendments and we will notify the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice that particular clauses have been altered."

Hon. Maduabum, who is the Chairman Committee on Public Petitions, had raised his observation under matters of privilege citing Order 5 of the House Standing Rules arguing that the declaration by the senate leadership on the effective date of the new constitutional was unconstitutional.

Maduabum insisted that the endorsement by the State Assemblies cannot be said to be final to warrant the document to take effect based on the provisions of section 9 of the 1999 Constitution.

In his submission, Minority whip of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila had however argued that section 9 of the Constitution was ambiguous and that Maduabum’s argument cannot be discountenanced. He however concluded that the framers of the 1999 Constitution could not have intended for the amendment to go to State Assemblies and be returned for another round of debate.

But former Speaker, Hon. (Mrs.) Patricia Etteh disagreed with him insisting that there was no ambiguity in the clause. She reasoned that in order to avoid the controversy trailing the new constitution, the leadership of National Assembly should make public clauses adopted by the State Assemblies.

"I think there is no ambiguity in what has happened. But it pertinent for the leadership of National Assembly to let us know what the Houses of Assembly have done. I think this would put to rest the argument for and against, " Etteh argued.

It will be recalled that the 36 State Houses of Assembly had last Friday submitted their resolution of the amended 50 clauses in the 1999 Constitution to the National Assembly having been earlier transmitted to them on June 15, 2010 for adoption.