President Goodluck Jonathan’s rejection of amendments to the 1999 Constitution caused different reactions among members of the National Assembly. He said, “The President has vetoed the constitution amendment and he has sent it back to the National Assembly. “The amendment did not meet the provision of Section 9 (3) of the constitution which talks about the need for four fifth of the National Assembly to agree with the amendment.” Section 9 (3) of the Constitution reads:
“An Act of the National Assembly for the purpose of altering the provisions of this section, section 8 or Chapter IV of this Constitution shall not be passed by either House of the National Assembly unless the proposal is approved by the votes of not less than four-fifths majority of all the members of each House, and also approved by resolution of the House of Assembly of not less than two-third of all states.” The rejected amended constitution granted approval for the separation of the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation from that of Minister/Commissioner of Justice
Some members of the national assembly have expressed their surprise at the reasons why the president openly vetoed the bill. The chairman of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution (4th Alteration Bill 2015), Senator Ike Ekweremadu, declared that his members would hold a two-day retreat from Wednesday to Thursday to review the case
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Senator Abubakar Yar’Adua (Katsina central) raised a point of order and repeated that the development had to be discussed because of the serious fundamental issues raised by the current leader of the country, which affected the unity of the National Assembly. “I think the President has raised very serious fundamental issues, especially in terms of our conscience as lawmakers and his own position as the chief executive officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That is why I am raising this point or order.”
Although the Senate president, David Mark agreed with Yar’Adua that the letter should be discussed, he said that the debate could only be significant after members had had the opportunity to study the letter at home. The Senate president said: “Obviously, this letter is not like any other normal letter. We can’t discuss the letter unless you have a copy of it. So, the first reaction is for me to make copies available to everybody and you go and study it.
“If you notice that there is an announcement also by the Constitution Review Committee that they(members) are going to meet. So, that will straight away go to them. I agree with you that weighty issues have been raised. It’s a peculiar case; so everybody will be involved.” A principal officer and a Vanguard source said that there were two choices before the National Assembly on the case. He said either the institution approves the position of Jonathan or goes ahead to override it.
The officer said: “We don’t know why he (Jonathan) decided to go this way. It is something that Nigerians having been looking forward to and as we managed to break the Jinx, we thought it was a legacy the 7th Senate is going to leave behind.” Agreeing with what his colleagues had said, Senator Ita Enang from Akwa Ibom state said the president should have raised the issues during the various public hearings held by the National Assembly and not wait until after it was approved by the parliament.
Nigeria’s president made his position known in a seven-page letter to David Mark and the House of Representatives speaker, Aminu Tambuwal. Jonathan listed 12 errors in the proposed amendments.
Source; Vanguard/Naija.com
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