Lagos — With last Thursday's passage of the Constitution Amendment Bill by the Senate and its expected passage this week by the House of Representatives, the nation will witness its first major amendment to the much criticised 1999 Constitution.

If the various state Houses of Assembly, which are also stakeholders in the amendment process also compliment the exercise, the country is bound to witness some changes in the process as well as the conduct of next year's general election.

An attempt in 2006 to amend the constitution was foiled by the controversial third term bid of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The Senator Ibrahim Mantu-led Senate Committee on Constitution Review was said to have smuggled in the ill-conceived tenure elongation clause. This move provoked the emergence of anti-third term senators who instantly shut down the entire amendment process in an apparent determination to throw away the baby with the bath water.

But indications point to the fact that the current exercise is on course even though there are hiccups, chief among which is the perceived unnecessary delay in the work of the Joint Committee of the National Assembly on Constitution Review as a result of the supremacy battle between the Senate and the House of Representatives.

While the Senate on Thursday passed the bill via two-thirds majority, which endorsed the recommendations of its Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution headed by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, the House of Representatives, on the same day received the report of its own Ad-hoc Committee on the Amendment of the 1999 Constitution and 2006 Electoral Act.

The House is expected to debate and approve the recommendations during its plenary this week. Specifically, the amendment processes are expected, among others, to aid the sanctity of the votes of the Nigerian electorate by guaranteeing more electoral transparency and ensuring that the Independent National Electoral Commission ((INEC) is truly independent not only in nomenclature but also in practical.

Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and Media, Senator Anthony Manzo, who briefed newsmen shortly after the Senate passed the Amendment Bill last week, said the Upper House had done its best in the interest of the country and its citizens, describing the passage of the Amendment Bill as a "history-making occasion" and giving the credit for the "good job" to the Ike Ekweremadu-led Committee.

One of the highlights of the amendment is the removal of some election related portions of the Constitution, especially the ones that stipulate guidelines for the political parties. These portions have now been made parts of the new Electoral Act.

The rationale for this is that it will be easier to amend the Act anytime occasion calls for it. The process of amending the Constitution looks too cumbersome and time-consuming. Highlights of the 35 amendments passed by the Senate include:

-Section 65 (2) which raises the educational qualifications for elected officials at the federal and state levels to tertiary institutions' certificates;

-Sections 65, 106, 117 and 131 which make provisions for independent candidacy "to liberalise the political space";

-Sections 66, 137 and 182, which seek to "avoid witch hunting" by now allowing persons indicted for embezzlement or fraud by tribunals or administrative commissions of inquiry to contest elections into any office;

-Sections 68 and 109, which seek "to liberalize the political space and maintain a fundamental right to freedom of association" by giving a blank cheque to federal and state lawmakers to change political parties at will (cross-carpeting) without losing their seats in the legislative house;

-Sections 76, 116, 132 and 178, which provide for a longer time frame (not earlier than 150 days and not later than 90 days) between the election and swearing in of the winners;

-Sections 121 and 160, which seek to remove the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) state Houses of Assembly as well as the Judiciary from the apron strings and control of the President and state governors respectively by making them financially and administratively independent through direct funding as a first line charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund;

-Sections 135 and 180, which seek to guard against undue tenure elongation after a re-run election by ensuring that a person whose election was annulled and also wins a consequent re-run polls will have his tenure calculated from the time he was first sworn into that office;

-Section 156, which seeks to ensure the non-partisanship and neutrality of the chairman and members of INEC; and

-Section 228, which empowers the National Assembly to make laws for the regulation of the internal democracies of political parties.

On its part, the House of Representatives too is on track in the historic journey to amend the same portions of the Constitution already passed by the Senate. Its equivalent committee presented its report last Thursday and the House has shifted its Easter break earlier scheduled to start last Friday to Thursday this week to give it time to consider and possibly pass the Amendment Bill before proceeding on the break.

Presenting the report of the 45-man committee, its Chairman who is also the Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon. Usman Nafada, said the committee was extensively guided in its recommendations by the positions canvassed by Nigerians during the public hearings, retreats and visits to crucial stakeholders in the polity. He added that the recommendations were also informed by the desire to give Nigerians a constitution that will not only stand the test of time but also guarantee credible electoral process.

Most of the 33 amendments suggested by the committee for the Constitution and 21 for the old Electoral Act were in line with the ones passed by the Senate. There may therefore not be much problem at the harmonization stage where the joint committee is expected to come up with the collective stand of the National Assembly on the Constitution Amendment Bill.

However, few areas of divergence that may take some time to resolve include the divergent stance on the two chambers over the issues of cross carpeting, disqualification of prospective election candidates based on indictment by tribunals and commission of inquiry, appointment of the deputy chairman of INEC and stipulation of age qualification for INEC chairman and members.

While the Senate gave elected officials a blank cheque to defect from their original political parties to another at will, the House Committee has recommended that any defecting lawmaker must forfeit his seat in the legislature.

According to the House committee, "where a person elected on the platform of a political party becomes a member of another political party without evidence of merger or factionalization of his former political party, he will vacate his seat."

The committee also recommended that "where a person who was elected as an independent candidate becomes a member of a political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected, he will vacate his seat," adding however that "where a person is expelled by his political party, he shall retain his seat provided that he does not join any political party."

Also, while the Senate passed an amendment that now allows persons indicted for embezzlement or fraud by tribunals or administrative commissions of inquiry to contest election into any office, the House Committee's recommendation is silent on this matter, suggesting the members' comfort with the status quo in the Constitution which bars people in that category from contesting any elective position.

Another area of possible divergence is the stipulation of time within which the courts and election tribunals should discharge election dispute cases. While the House Committee's suggestion is more specific on the need for election tribunals and the courts to give priority attention to the hearing of election petitions so as to meet up with the time frame recommended for the disposal of the cases before the inauguration of winners, the Senate appears to gloat over this aspect, which is intended to nudge the courts and tribunals into concluding actions on petitions before swearing-in.

Also, the House Committee's recommendation of the appointment of a deputy chairman of INEC who should not be of the same gender with the chairman as well as stipulation of age qualifications for chairman and members of the commission appear not to be considered crucial enough by the Senate.

Apart from these few areas of divergence, a potential conflict that may further delay the harmonization of the positions of the two chambers on the constitution amendment may ensue again if members of both Houses do not suppress their ego and resolve quickly the issue of who presides over the Harmonization Committee otherwise known as Conference Committee.

As the chairmen of the separate constitution review committees, Ekweremadu and Nafada said their recommendations were guided by the wishes of Nigerians. Observers are of the view that the two chambers should also allow the over riding interests of Nigerians to prevail and avoid further unnecessary delays in the passage of this important bill.