National Assembly And Constitution Review: Waiting For Godot?

The main themes in Waiting for Godot include the human condition, absurdism and nihilism. The human condition: The hopelessness in Vladimir and Estragon’s lives demonstrates the extent to which humans rely on illusions—such as religion and politics according to Beckett—to give hope to a meaningless existence” – Google    .

This past week, elder statesman, Edwin Clark, alleged “that the National Assembly spends about N1 billion annually on the effort to review the nation’s constitution without making any headway.”  He went on to “challenge President Muhammadu Buhari to convoke a meeting of representatives of Nigeria to deliberate on the report submitted by the Governor Nasir el-Rufai committee set up  by the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) on restructuring”. He then ominously warned “that unless the injustice perceived by parts of the country is addressed, the issue of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and other agitators will be a child’s play”.

My liking the perennial constitution review by the National Assembly to Samuel Beckett’s WAITING FOR GODOT, is another way of saying that for the National Assembly, the exercise is nothing more than a sink hole, another way for legislators in the Poverty Capital (PC) of the world, aka Nigeria,  to further add to their humongous emoluments which rank among the highest in the world; including countries that Nigeria’s annual budget, which we borrow to execute, does not amount to one per cent of their own.

It is obvious that no session of the National Assembly ever appeared eager to have the exercise concluded and, when it did in 2015, it inserted enough booby traps to foreclose President Goodluck Jonathan’s assent.

More germane, however, is the fact that Nigerians, across board, are convinced that not even the Assembly’s  best effort will be good enough for the Nigeria they yearn for.  This fact was captured in a very expansive statement by the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) when it declared as follows in a statement that has since been echoed by many other  Pan – ethnic organisations in the country:

“Nigeria’s future, it said, rests largely on its willingness to address major constraints to equity and justice, a functional structure, consistent good governance, security for all citizens, a credible electoral process, growing understanding between, and among all groups, and an economy that grows and narrows inequalities between classes and regions.” Continuing, it says: “national goals cannot be achieved by a process that makes wasteful expenditure around false hopes a routine. The legislature and executive branches of government have large quantities of reviews, recommendations and reports from past attempts at amending the constitutions and these represent enough resources for a review if the legislature is serious about this vital national priority”. “The Forum recommends the alternative of leaders of thought, elders, groups and professional organisations and representatives of government, to freely discuss every element of our co-existence as a country under principles of voluntarism, genuine representation, mutual respect and integrity of the process”. Specifically, it said: “A Nigerian Peoples’ Conference on Review of the Constitution will benefit from past work in this direction in addition to contemporary challenges, which the country needs to address in a context that allows free and productive engagements without pre-determined ends.” The outcome of this conference, it concluded, should be submitted to the two arms of government, which should provide for a referendum in the constitution so that Nigerians can directly decide on how they want their nation to be structured and function”.

I have also severally written  on the subject. For instance, in “Constitution Review: That Nigerians Would Not Be Taken For A Ride Again”, I wrote as follows on 8 March, 2020:

“Just as President Yar Adua denounced the election that brought him to office in 2007, former President Obasanjo recently said that the 1999 constitution on which he was sworn in as President, is  not working, nor will it ever work, as it cannot take Nigeria out of its  present predicament”.

But  has the National Assembly  come to this realisation? Do the members appreciate that what Nigeria requires today is far beyond the perfunctory amendment  of a jaded and totally inappropriate  constitution? I think they should be told, loud and clear, that what Nigeria needs now is a Constitution Drafting Committee, whose report  should  be approved by Nigerians at a national referendum.

Unfortunately, even if they are aware of this minimum desideratum for peace, precedents already set at  these exercises  are too tempting for them not  to want a  repeat.

Given the need for Nigerians to be on their  guide, I consider it a bounden duty to bring to the attention of  all,  the following  unflattering report of a PREMIUM TIMES investigation published 11, December 2015, on an earlier constitution review exercise. This should  warn Nigerians against them conducting another.  It should also alert the  EFCC,  which recently demonstrated courage by commencing  investigation into the N35B defence funds  believed to have been looted over a decade ago, to also bring the legislators allegedly implicated in those deals under its purview . For those so   accused,  that should be  a grand  opportunity for them to clear their names.

But more crucially, the President would be giving his place in history, a major  boost if, rather than permit another sterile constitution amendment  exercise, he would urgently convoke a Constitution Drafting Committee to  fashion out a new constitution which will not lie against itself, claiming to have been made by “we the people”.

It is therefore being suggested, as already opined by former President Obasanjo and many other eminent Nigerians, that it will be a sheer waste of time, and resources, to just look on whilst the National Assembly continues with this  chimera  of a constitution review.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan had, on February 6, 2020,  set up a 56- member committee for this purpose with all  the principal officers as members in addition to one senator from each state, and two others, selected to represent each geo-political zone.

Welcome then to the Prime Times report titled :”How Lawmakers Pocketed N8 Billion In Failed Constitution Amendment”.

“In an investigation lasting months, this newspaper found that between 2011 and 2015, the 53-member House of Representatives Ad-hoc Constitution Review Committee and its 49-member counterpart in the Senate in the 7th National Assembly withdrew N3,250,000,000.00 and N4,500,000,000.00 respectively to purportedly execute the fourth alteration of the Constitution.

It is not immediately clear how the lawmakers spent the outrageous funds but insiders say a huge chunk of it was pocketed by members of the committees in what one source described as ‘unprecedented naira bazaar’, by a committee of the National Assembly’.

Officials of the committees continued to make withdrawals even long after the exercise was concluded. It remains unclear what those withdrawals were spent on.

The Committees, which operated independently, withdrew the monies in tranches from their accounts domiciled in an Abuja branch of the Guarantee Trust Bank.

Curiously, some of the withdrawals were made long after they submitted their final reports to both chambers for consideration and a few weeks before the general elections and the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly.

The Committee withdrew N83.33m on March 2, 2015 and the same amount on March 23, five days before the Presidential and National Assembly elections and on April 13, barely two days after this year’s governorship election.” – PREMIUM TIMES, December 11, 2015.

The House Committee’s major activities during the process included a retreat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, between May 27 and 29, 2012; Peoples Public Sessions held simultaneously in all the 360 federal constituencies on November 10, 2012; and public presentation of collated results on April 18, 2013.

It held 25 meetings altogether while the assignment lasted. There was also a retreat for the Technical Experts on Constitution and Legal matters who produced the work-plan as well as some civil society organisations drawn from the six geo-political zones.

Members of the House subsequently voted on the various sections proposed for amendment on January 30, 2014.

The Senate Committee, on the other hand, held a retreat in Asaba, Delta State; organised zonal and national (Abuja) public hearings; conducted opinion polls; undertook study tour to the United States, Canada and India; held consultations with seasoned experts and constitutional lawyers; and organised town hall meetings in the senatorial zones.

It presented its final report to the Senate on June 5, 2013.

The Committee whose membership included the principal officers of the upper chamber who served as “members of the steering committee,” finally organised a retreat in Lagos to consider a draft bill. That was after the senators voted on the amended sections on three occasions – July 2013, April 2014 and June 2014.

But those who should know say all these engagements could not have cost the nation more than N1billion altogether. They said some of the public sessions held in states were funded by state governments.

Then Senate President, David Mark  did not answer or return multiple calls. Neither did he respond to a text message sent to him.

Ditto Deputy President Ekweremadu. When contacted, Imam Imam, the media aide to Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, asked this newspaper to direct all inquiries to the Clerk of the House of Representatives.

Deputy Speaker, Hon. Ihedioha, who chaired the House Ad-hoc Committee, merely told us in a text message to feel free to reach out to the Clerk of the House of Reps to furnish us with all the details”.

Mr. Omolori could however not be reached and did not answer or return calls. He also did not  respond to a text message sent to him.

Several attempts by this newspapers to speak with the Clerk to the National Assembly,  failed. The  spokesperson of the House, who served in the ad-hoc committee, did not answer calls by this newspaper”.

“However, a former senator who served on the Senate Ad-hoc committee, Anthony Adeniyi,

told  Prime Times in a telephone interview: “I can’t confirm the figure you are quoting. I don’t think we spent that much,”  while another senator, close to the constitution review committee, but who requested anonymity for fear he might be attacked by his colleagues, said, “I can confirm that they withdrew more than that. Committee members were just sharing money”.

Can Nigeria afford such irresponsibility in this era of a gruelling pandemic?

Nigerians  beware”.

Add to the pandemic,  the suffocating financial meltdown that may, according to the latest revelation of the NNPC, GMD. Mele Kyari, see Nigerians being asked to pay up to N340 per a litre of petrol.