Senators shocked over Jonathan’s refusal to okay constitution amendment bill

THE build up to the looming face-off between President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Assembly over the former’s refusal to endorse the fourth alteration of the 1999 Constitution gathered momentum yesterday.

Senators were furious after Senate President David Mark read a letter containing Jonathan’s refusal of assent to the constitution alteration.

Already, the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Constitution review has summoned emergency meeting to discuss the development.

The meeting was scheduled for yesterday and today.

Apart from the emergency meeting, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu-led committee will also hold a retreat.

Some of the senators angered by the president’s withholding of assent on the Bill are already up in arms, threatening to mobilise their colleagues to override the veto.

The senators, who felt that they did the right thing in the alteration of relevant Sections of the constitution, said that one option open to them was to mobilise members of the two chambers of the National Assembly and the required number of state Houses of Assembly to override the president.

One of the senators said there were salient alterations made in the constitution that were aimed at moving the country forward.

“The work we did painstakingly for months cannot just be thrown to the waste bin with a stroke of the pen. We know how to overcome this sweeping rejection of the work of 109 senators, 360 members of the House of Representatives and over 23 Houses of Assembly.

There was pin drop silence in the Senate chamber as Mark read the seven page memo entitled: “Re: Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Fourth Alteration) Act 2015.”

For effect, Mark took his time to read the lengthy document, ensuring that he placed emphasis where Jonathan stressed.

Immediately the Senate president was done with the memo, Senator Sadiq Yar’Adua (Katsina Central) raised a motion to urge his colleagues to set aside relevant Senate rules to enable them to discuss the presidential memo.

Yar’Adua said the president’s memo was so weighty that its discussion should not be delayed.

Mark, however, countered.

The Senate president, who agreed that Jonathan raised weighty issues in the memo, said first thing should be done first.

The first thing, he said, was to circulate the memo to senators to study it with the hope of enabling them make informed decisions on the issues raised by the President.

Mark also said the appropriate committee, in this case, the Senate Committee on Constitution Review, should consider the presidential memo.

He said the committee had already scheduled to meet. He then referred the memo to it.

It was learnt that aggrieved senators have started mounting pressure on Senate leadership to allow the chamber to override the President’s veto.

But the Presidency is insisting that any override of the veto could only become applicable if there is a legal threshold for the amendments to the constitution.

According to a source in the Senate, Ekweremadu and members of his committee from both chambers were shocked by the rejection of the amendments.

They said the 12 issues raised by the President were “legal technicalities”, which can be mutually addressed.

Some of the senators alleged that the “errors” spotted by the President might have been the handwork of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN).

They vowed to deal with Adoke by invoking the power to override the President’s Veto.

A top source said: “The mood in the Senate and the House of Representatives was shocking and glooming. Ekweremadu and his team were just unhappy that the amendments were thrown away by the President.

“Senators are threatening fire and brimstone to stop the President from vetoing the amendments. Some of them are pushing for the invocation of the power to override the President’s veto as enshrined in the constitution.

“The anger of the senators stemmed from the fact that time is no longer on the side of the National Assembly to meet the thresholds in Section 9(3) of the 1999 Constitution to make the Fourth Alteration Act 2015 legal.

“They are unhappy that all their efforts have been wasted. As it is now, only the 8th National Assembly can complete the process for the ongoing amendments to the constitution.

The source added:  “The Senate leadership is calling for calm to open up talks with the Presidency.”

Another source said: “We told the Ekweremadu’s Committee that there was no basis rushing to pass the amendments into law. We said they should be careful, but they did not follow due process.

“There must be legal basis for amendments to the constitution. If there was no compliance with due process, do you want the President to assent to it?”

The power of the National Assembly to override the President on any bill is contained in Section 58 (1-5) of the 1999 Constitution.

The section says: “The power of the National Assembly to make laws shall be exercised by bills passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives and, except as otherwise provided by subsection (5) of this section, assented to by the President.

“A bill may originate in either the Senate or the House of Representatives and shall not become law unless it has been passed and, except as otherwise provided by this section and section 59 of this Constitution, assented to in accordance with the provisions of this section.

“Where a bill has been passed by the House in which it originated, it shall be sent to the other House, and it shall be presented to the President for assent when it has been passed by that other House and agreement has been reached between the two Houses on any amendment made on it.

“Where a bill is presented to the President for assent, he shall within 30 days thereof signify that he assents or that he withholds assent.

“Where the President withholds his assent and the bill is again passed by each House by two-thirds majority, the bill shall become law and the assent of the President shall not be required.”

But the position of the presidency, however, yesterday was that the veto had no personal undertone.

Jonathan had said he would not assent to the alterations because they did not satisfy the strict requirements of Section 9(3) of the 1999 Constitution.