…..Says National Assembly Would Provide Legal Framework for Confab
BEVERLY HILLS, CA, October 22, (THEWILL) – Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, on Tuesday, said making the proposed national conference sovereign would lead to anarchy.
He, however, assured that the National Assembly, and the Senate in particular, would provide the legal framework for the national conference .
He spoke while playing host to the Advisory Committee on the National Dialogue that paid courtesy call on the Senate Leadership.
He also said that the National Assembly has been in the business of trying to find better ways of addressing some of the national challenges through constitutional arrangement.
Ekweremadu who also chairs the Senate Committee on Constitution Review told his audience led by chairman of the Advisory Committee, Senator Femi Okorounmu, that you can’t wake up when you have a constitutional government in place and say you want a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) without a legal basis.
“If we say that we are a country that believes in the rule of law, we must be ready like others to obey the laws and not the rule of the thumb. So when we hear people talk about SNC, referendum and all that, there must be a legal framework for it. You don’t wake up when you have a constitutional government in place and say you want a SNC, you impose the will of the people on the rest of the people without a legal basis, that is absolutely difficult.
“Other countries that have had this kind of challenge, what they did first was to provide the necessary legal basis for it, legal basis for what they are doing. Otherwise, you are calling for anarchy. We believe that we can all work together to make this workable so that at the end of the day, whatever you have done will not be an exercise in futility. We will do our own part while you do your own part.
“We in the National Assembly have been in this business of trying to find some better ways of addressing some of our national challenges through constitutional arrangement. We have been in the business of constitutional reforms since 2000, in fact immediately after coming into being of this particular Republic, we had the National Assembly joint committee on the review of the constitution and we had many challenges but in 2010, we successfully amended the 1999 constitution for the first time. We have done it for another two times since then.
“We have come to terms with the reality of the necessity for the improvement in our country. So, we welcome this decision by the Federal Government to allow Nigerians to discuss and bring about possible changes that will better the lives of all of us.
“It is therefore possible that based on our experience we practiced and the exercise of the review process, there are changes that are fundamental to ensure that this country progresses strongly, that is where your job comes in,” he said.
Continuing, the Deputy President of the Senate said his understanding of the confab committee is to provide the framework for dialogue and to provide the intellectual background that will clear the road for the likely confab members to do something that will benefit all Nigerians.
“My understanding is that your committee is to create the framework for this dialogue, to provide the intellectual background that will enable those who will have the conversation to do something that will benefit all of us.
“For us in the National Assembly, the important thing in this exercise is to provide the necessary legal framework that will support whatever outcome of both your own committee and the committee that will come after it.
“We have researched from the work we have done over these years that a day such as this will come. So in the present constitution amendment exercise, we have proposed to our colleagues a possible amendment to section 9 of our constitution that will provide the legal basis that will lead to a possible new constitution. For today, what we have in our constitution in the process for amendment, there is no such provision in this constitution that can successfully power a new constitution.
“We borrowed the examples of some other countries with similar examples like Zimbabwe, Kenya, Brazil, to bring into our constitution, such framework that can support a possible new constitution in the future. We are hoping that when we meet with our colleagues in the House of Representatives, they will support this initiative then if this happens, most of the fears will have been addressed,” he added.
Earlier, Okoroumu told Ekweremadu that he and members of his committee were in National Assembly to consult with the lawmakers as very important stakeholders in the whole exercise of national dialogue. He enjoined the National Assembly to accord the committee all necessary support to succeed. Shortly after, they went into a closed door meeting with the Deputy Senate President.
BY EMMA UCHE, ABUJA
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