Emmanuel Aziken
19 October 2008
Despite being dismissed as provocative, pre-emptive, Senator Geroge Sekibo from Rivers State is going ahead with what could prove to be the most controversial piece of legislation to surface at the National Assembly since Senator Ibrahim Mantu's voyage to amend the Constitution in 2006.
The presidential succession bill which spells out detailed procedures for filling vacancies in the office of President or Vice-President is so controversial that Senators from both the north and south are refusing to be quoted as making comments on the bill.
Despite its controversial nature, many Senators interestingly until recently seemed to be ignorant of the bill.
The bill, like a thief in the midnight, was introduced into the Senate at the most awkward time for Senators last June.
As the Senate prepared to go on its seasonal recess on July 10, 2008 the bill entitled An Act to specify the statutory order, procedure and time frame of succession to the offices of the president and Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in the event of the occurrence of permanent incapacity, death, resignation, impeachment or removal from office of the holder of any of the offices thereof, in accordance with sections 143 and 144 of the Constitution and designate other matters appertaining thereto," was read for the first time.
As the first reading of a bill is a very perfunctory process not many Senators and journalists were conscious of the bill. Indeed by the time it was read, there were very few Senators and journalists in the chambers as many of the legislators were that day preparing for their recess.
Remarkably, the bill was introduced into the Senate arguably during the darkest weeks of the present administration when President Umaru Yar'Adua was officially in Saudi Arabia for the lesser hajj. His visit to the Islamic homeland for nearly three weeks was, however, muddled in controversy in Nigeria on account of reports that the hajj was a cover for a medical checkup.
With reports of the President's ill-health causing slow movement in the affairs of government the news of the presidential succession bill came out as a bolt.
One close associate of President Yar'Adua from the North in the National Assembly when contacted on the bill was raving with rage vowing that the bill would not see the light of the day.
Using all sorts of adjectives, he described the bill as speculative, injurious and harmful to the well being of the nation as he vowed to mobilize friends and colleagues against the bill.
Senators contacted on the issue were shocked with many describing the bill as not only ill-timed but superfluous on account of subsisting constitutional provisions on the succession.
Particularly touched were close friends of Senator Sekibo (PDP, Rivers) from the South-South who saw it as a proposal that could undermine the region's very possible quest for the presidency in the near future. In that thinking was the fact that the country's second in command is Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan who is from Bayelsa State which adjoins Sekibo's Rivers State in the Niger Delta.
Beyond the objections of being ill-timed were also suggestions that the bill may have been sponsored for some political expediency. That is, that Senator Sekibo was being used to achieve some political machination possibly to enhance the interest of some political gladiators within or outside the South-South geo-political zone.
Senator Sekibo, the sponsor of the bill was nevertheless adamant when Saturday Vanguard first sought his opinion on the bill saying that the bill was necessary to fill what he described as loopholes in the Constitution.
Section 146 of the Nigerian Constitution which stipulates the procedure for filling vacancies in the office of President and Vice-President states thus:
146. (1) The Vice-President shall hold the office of President if the office of President becomes vacant by reason of death or resignation, impeachment, permanent incapacity or the removal of the President from office for any other reason in accordance with section 143 of this Constitution.
(2) Where any vacancy occurs in the circumstances mentioned in subsection (1) of this section during a period when the office of Vice-President is also vacant, the President of the Senate shall hold the office of President for a period of not more than three months, during which there shall be an election of a new President, who shall hold office for the unexpired term of office of the last holder of the office.
(3) Where the office of Vice-President becomes vacant:
(a) by reason of death or resignation, impeachment, permanent incapacity or removal in accordance with section 143 or 144 of this Constitution;
(b) by his assumption of the office of President in accordance with subsection (1) of this section; or
(c) for any other reason, the President shall nominate and, with the approval of each House of the National Assembly, appoint a new Vice-President.
Though the line of succession in the case of the president is clearly outlined by the Constitution and the mode of appointing a new Vice-President is also clearly stated, supporters of the controversial bill, however, say that the Constitution does not stipulate a time line within which succession should be effected.
A legislative consultant in the National Assembly who has studied the bill, Barrister Wale Oshodin described the bill as a helpful solution to what he described as loopholes in section 146 of the Constitution.
He especially noted the absence of time lines on filling vacancies that may occur in the event of a vacancy in the office of president or Vice-President.
The main thrust of the bill is that the vacancy in the office of president should be filled in the case of an annulment of the presidential election by the Senate President within 24 hours and in the event of death or resignation of the president by the Vice-President also within twenty-four hours.
The bill also makes a one week time line for the office of Vice-President to be filled in the case of a vacancy in that office.
Many Senators, however, see the bill as controversial as they say that it could be directed at the sitting president who is generally known to have a medical history of ill-health.
Senator Sekibo's bill, however, which entered the Senate system about April, however, predated the latest health scare around the presidency.
A staunch opponent of the bill in the Senate in condemning the legislative proposal as ill-timed said:
"This is the problem with Nigerians because sometimes they don't even read the political terrain of this country," one Northern Senator who spoke on the condition of anonymity said this week.
"Sekibo is from South-South, the Vice-President who is the natural person to take over if anything happens to the president is from South-South and his own country man is bringing this junk. So how does he think our own people are going to react?"
"The Constitution is very, very clear, or is he over-riding the Constitution," he asked?
Rising in defence of his bill, Senator Sekibo had last month told Saturday Vanguard: "The president of a country is the commander in chief. There are certain things that any other person cannot do including the Vice-President, that only the president can do.
The country cannot be in darkness for one hour for whatever reason. So it is necessary that before the doom day comes, when it comes we don't know, we are not praying for it, maybe in the next 50 years or so, but that let there be Act on ground so that when it happens we are not going to speculate, you will have a guide that will help you," he said.
"Even some of my colleagues felt that it is a very harsh bill but I think that it is OK, sometimes it is good to drive in troubled waters and get something out of it, even when some people wanted to discourage me, I told them it is ok that it is the best bill we can do for Nigeria.
"I think that there is a place for it. The important thing is to work out a modality for orderliness and good governance for the peace and unity of the country. It is not when something happens that you start running around for what to do and what not to do."
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