FOI: Daily Times writes NASS over spending on Constitution amendment

• Demands details of money spent by Ekweremadu Cttee
• We can still review our stance on restructuring after recess -Saraki
• FG yet to take decision on lawmakers’ action – Presidency

Prodded by demands from certain sections of the public on the need to know the actual amount of money spent by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu -led Joint Committee of the National Assembly on Constitution Review, The Daily Times has written to the Management of the National Assembly to demand for the exact figures.

Invoking the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2011, the newspaper is further asking the Clerk of the National Assembly to furnish it with the full details of the amount budgeted for the constitution amendment exercise in both the 7th and current 8th National Assembly.

In the FOI letter dated Friday, July 28, 2017 and addressed to the Clerk, National Assembly, The Daily Times is also asking the NASS management to make available the actual amount released to Ekweremadu- led committee with a view to assisting it in carrying out the constitution amendment exercise.

The newspaper also copied the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, with the content of the FOI letter.

The newspaper further stated that the public is awash with the information that humongous billions of naira was spent by the committee, saying that there is the need to make the actual amount available to the public and prevent speculations.

The resolve of the newspaper to seek information on the matter was sequel to agitations by some Nigerians who were angry over the decision of the National Assembly to reject the Bills on Devolution of Powers, Resource Control and others that would eventually promote the much awaited restructuring of the country .

These Nigerians have also been inundating The Daily Times with requests to know the amount of money spent by the members of Ekweremadu -led committee during their sittings in Lagos as they were of the opinion that the money had gone down the drain.

There have been speculations that since the National Assembly commenced the process of amending the 1999 Constitution in 2007, a whopping N8.5billion had so far been committed to the processes, which Nigerians believed have produced little results.

A joint Committee of the National Assembly on Constitution Review set up in the 7th Senate was said to have spent a total of N1.5billion while little results reportedly trailed the efforts of the Committee.

Besides, some Nigerians have been criticizing the Senate and the House of Representatives for failing to appreciate the need for restructuring through power devolution as the lawmakers threw out Bills to that effect during their voting sessions in the process of amending the 1999 Constitution (as amended) last week.

Those who felt the pains of the National Assembly’s refusal to pass the Bills on Power Devolution, Amendment of the Land Use Act, Gender Balancing and others also alleged that the federal lawmakers towed the line of ethnicism and other primordial sentiments rather than yielding to the collective national interests before dispensing with the Bills.

They also pointed to the fact that the Senate did not find it difficult to pass Bills aimed towards whittling down the power of the President even in approving the amendments being approved as a Bill which sought to veto the President on the amendments sailed through, among others.

The two chambers had also rejected Bills on State creation and boundary adjustment as well as a Bill that sought to to provide 35 percent affirmative action for women at the federal level and 20 percent for women in states.

But the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has assured that the bids by Nigerians for restructuring are still open as the Bills, which the two chambers threw out, could still be represented and considered after the lawmakers’ recess.

Saraki, who made this known in Ilorin at the weekend, said Bills which the National Assembly rejected several times were represented and were eventually passed, hence a possibility that if the Bills on restructuring are presented again with expected lobby and intense consultations with lawmakers by interested parties, they could still sail through.

Essentially, Saraki hinted that the Bills on Power Devolution, Land Use Act and others were defeated in the Senate and House of Representatives because of mistrusts among the ethnic groups in Nigeria as reflected by the voting pattern on items slated for voting

He said, “We need to be honest with ourselves that presently there is a lot of mistrust in the country at the moment; the air is very polluted and lets be very frank, the blame must go all round; whether it be the politician, or some who are doing commentaries and even some of you in the media who sometimes write stories that are more like hate speeches, that are inaccurate.

But the voting during the constitution amendment process had reflected extent of ethnic divide along the north and south as it was apparent that the north was utterly averse to the idea of devolving more powers to states.

It is instructive to note that the South could not match the voting strength of the North on critical items scheduled for amendment in the constitution, just as the South had 46 votes in support of power devolution against 48 No votes by the North.

The Process of Amending the constitution, according to rules, is incomplete until two-thirds of the State Assemblies concur with the amendments passed by the Federal legislators before the final assent of the President is required.