Why we want to stop review

news update

Labour Minister: Why We Want Constitution Review Stopped

Sunday March, 15,2009

By Collins Edomaruse Thisday

A s the uncertainty surrounding the take-off of the National Assembly-initiated Constitution Review process thickens, more facts on why the exercise appears a still-born project emerged at the weekend.
THISDAY investigations revealed that unknown to many Nigerians, unseen hands from the Executive arm have indeed been working assiduously to ensure that the review exercise fails to take-off as planned.
Minister of Labour and Productivity, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode (SAN), during an interview with THISDAY last week gave an inkling into the manipulation going on on the constitution review. Kayode said the some of them in the executive have insisted that the “purported” constitutional review project should “stop”.
According to him,: “One of the most critical recommendations by the Uwais Committee on Electoral Reform which the government has accepted is the unbundling of the Indepen-dent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“When you unbundle INEC, it means the provisions of the 1999 Consti-tution as they relate to the Electoral Commission will be amended accordingly. This means that a new law will be made to establish the Political Parties Regulatory Commission; a new law will be made to set up Electoral Offences Commission. Then substantial amendments will be made to the 2002 Electoral Act to capture all these recommendations in the Uwais Report.
“This is why we have been insisting that the purported constitutional review process at the National Assembly should stop. At least action should stay on it until this issue of electoral reform is completed,” he said.
The minister also told THISDAY that government was not also comfortable with doubts being expressed by members of the public over the decision of the Federal Executive Council to make the appointment of chairman of INEC the responsibility of the President in the White Paper on the Justice Uwais report.
He argued that it does not stand to sound judgement for anybody to suggest that a nominee of the National Judicial Commission (NJC) for the office of INEC chairman would be more trusted than that of the President for the same job.
He advised Nigerians to disabuse their minds of such doubts. He said even appointments to the NJC were equally made by the President.
“It was suggested that if the NJC appoints, it would guarantee INEC’s independence. But I say with emphasis that the Chairman of the NJC is appointed by the President. So, if the President appoints the NJC Chairman and you accept his authority, how can you insinuate that the president cannot appoint a reasonable person to head the INEC? It is the same person that appoints them. How can a bad tree bear good fruits with respect to NJC, but cannot bear good fruits with respect to INEC?”
He appealed for patience and said: “The important thing is that we should trust in our leadership, especially this particular President. This provision is not being made for him; it is being made for whoever becomes President in this country. We should trust our leaders that they will do the right thing for us, especially if the constitution has given them power to do so,” he added.
However, the Presidency’s position on the appointment of INEC chairman may suffer another hiccup at the National Assembly as lawmakers, unhappy with the new twist in the recommendations of the Uwais panel are perfecting strategies to ensure that each of the three arms of government eventually plays a role in the appointment of INEC chairman.
THISDAY source at the National Assembly said following the on-going debates on the appointment of INEC chairman, “the National Assembly, especially the Senate, is of the view that all arms of government should contribute to the making of the next INEC boss. The Senate would prefer a situation where the NJC recommends three nominees to the President, who submits the name of one of the nominees to the Senate for confirmation after a rigorous screening exercise. In this way, the next chairman will not be loyal to just one person,” he added.
*Read THISDAY Lawyer on Tuesday for Kayode’s full interview