‘Jonathan may not submit confab report to National Assembly

President Goodluck Jonathan

The Senate leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, has said that President Goodluck Jonathan may not present the report of the National Conference to the National Assembly.

Ndoma-Egba, who stated this in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Wednesday, explained that the current move by the Senate to amend Section 9 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), was not to create an avenue for Jonathan to present the confab report to the National Assembly.

He said calls for the amendment of Section 9 started over one year ago when the Senate President, David Mark, disclosed that the upper chamber was contemplating an amendment of the constitution to enable Nigerians to produce their own constitution different from that of the military.

He said, “Some people believe that this provision (amendment to section 9) is to accommodate the report of the National Conference. There is no guarantee that the report of the National Conference will get to the National Assembly.

“The National Conference is a body set up by Mr. President, so its report will go to Mr. President and Mr. President will do with the report as he pleases.

“So, it is just the suspicion that this amendment is to provide a ploy to foist the new constitution on the Nigerian people, you can’t just pass a new constitution like that.

“It still has to pass through the National Assembly. Two-third of the members of the National Assembly has to approve it and at least 24 states’ houses of assembly must approve it, so that is the suspicion surrounding section 9. I think it is just a wrong perception and the attribution of motives.”

The Senate leader recalled that Nigerians, for a long time, had been clamouring for a new constitution based on an argument that the 1999 Constitution was given to the citizens by the military.

He said, “If you take the 1999 Constitution, it does not make any provision for a new constitution, it makes provision for its amendment, now being a parliament, we must always respond to the wishes of the people.

“We now said okay the people want a new constitution, so the only way to go about it is to amend section 9 to provide modalities for making a new constitution, we did not start the clamour.

“In August last year, I represented the Senate President at the NBA conference in Calabar and in his speech, he said that the Senate was contemplating an amendment to section 9 of the constitution to provide for the making of a new constitution.”

Ndoma-Egba expressed the hope that the amendment would be concluded before the end of the tenure of the present Senate.

He said, “Certainly, we have passed a number of the amendments, we have announced the membership from our own end of the conference committee, so as soon as we resume, (next week), the conference committee will harmonize with the House of Representatives and we will send them right away to the states.”

(PUNCH)