Tashikalmah Hallah and Francis Okeke
22 November 2008
The controversial proposal for a three-term of four years tenure for the nation's president rejected by the National Assembly during ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo's administration will be revisited by the legislature in its ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution, the Chairman of the House of Committee on Media and Public Affairs Rep. Labaran Dambatta (ANPP, Kano) announced yesterday in Abuja.
If the three-term tenure proposal sails through in the National Assembly's latest constitution amendment efforts, President Umaru Musa Yar'adua is likely to be the first beneficiary of the tenure elongation advantage which Obasanjo sought in vain.
Addressing a press conference yesterday, Dambatta said however offensive the three-term proposal may be, the Joint Committee on Constitution Review (JCCR) would still consider it, saying the committee has no plan to reject any proposal for the amendment of the 1999 Constitution.
More than 120 areas of amendment were proposed in the ill-fated constitution amendment exercise then chaired by former deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu.
The current JCCR is being chaired by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, while the House Deputy Speaker, Usman Nafada is his deputy in the committee made of 88 members drawn from the two chambers of the National Assembly.
According to Dambatta, "everybody is free to submit proposal, and there is going to be consultations and so on. And once that issue (third term) comes before the committee, I am sure they will do justice to it, whatever issue that will come up before that Committee."
He added that the legislature was determined to produce an implementable constitution for the country and called for the cooperation of all Nigerians.
However, the MP denied claims that the presentation of 2009 budget proposals was being delayed by the alleged insistence of National Assembly to make advance inputs into the budget.
Danbatta said the timing for the presentation was at the discretion of the president. Reacting to complaints by the Osun State caucus of the House on the sack of Leo Awoyemi (PDP, Osun) from the JCCR by Speaker Dimeji Bankole last Thursday, he said the Speaker has the liberty to name or sack any of the constitution review panellists in the House. "Don't forget it is a democracy. Anybody could be a member of any committee. I don't think there is anything wrong if anybody is substituted. There could be a reason. You are a member of any committee at the instance of the Speaker," Danbatta said.
He said those protesting some of the House decisions are those still questioning the process of purchasing 380 cars for members.
He assured that the Committee on Ethics and Privileges, investigating the N2.3 billion purchases would do everything possible to answer questions being raised on the transaction.
Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo and Transparency Group in the House are currently questioning the deal, even as they have testified before the Ethics Committee.
Although, Danbatta described the House group as sinister, he asked the people to keep faith with the work of the investigating committee as there could not have been a better team than the one currently available.
"They are doing a thorough work. Nobody is sweeping anything under the carpet. These are men of high integrity. Almost everyone there is a lawyer.
"Don't forget that the committee is doing its job. Nothing was done in secret. It was transparently done. You were all witnesses to the activities of the committee.
"So the issue of ad-hoc committee does not arise here because here is the committee of the House statutorily set up by the rules of the House, and empowered to handle issues of that nature.
"There is no other committee better than that to handle that assignment. I believe that they are people of high integrity. Nobody will question the judgement of members of that committee," he said.
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