Lagos — The 1999 Constitution places an onerous responsibility, albeit advisory, on the National Council of State. According to Paragraph 6 of the Third Schedule Part 1 of the document, “The Council shall have power to: (a) advise the President in the exercise of his powers with respect to: (i) national population census and compilation, publication and keeping of records and other information concerning the same; (ii) prerogative of mercy; (iii) award of national honours; (iv) the Independent National Electoral Commission (including the appointment of members of that Commission);  (v) the National Judicial Council (including the appointment of the members, other than ex-officio members of that Council); and (vi) the National Population Commission (including the appointment of members of that Commission); and (b) advise the President whenever requested to do so on the maintenance of public order within the Federation or any part thereof and on such other matters as the President may direct.”

In the light of the many sensitive matters on which the Council of State is privileged to advise the President, it is our view that any persons who have, at one time or the other, participated in subverting the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria ought not to serve on the Council. To do so, as is now the case, amounts to rewarding their unconstitutional actions. Especially noteworthy in this regard is the participation of former military rulers in meetings of the Council of State, which may be seen as the antithesis of civic education currently being promoted in the new curricula for Nigerian schools by the National Education Research Council (NERC), in line with the new education policy. Many school children will certainly be hard put to reconcile the ideals of democracy, as contained in their textbooks, with the privileged roles reserved for those who, in the nation’s past, came to power through the barrel of the gun. For instance, at the last meeting of the Council of State held in the Presidential Villa on June 8, 2010, surviving former military rulers, viz., Generals Yakubu Gowon (1966-1975), Muhammadu Buhari (1983-1985), Ibrahim Babangida (1985-1993) and Abdulsalami Abubakar (1998-1999) were the cynosure of all eyes. Chief Ernest Shonekan (August to November 1993), Head of the Interim National Government, a contraption proclaimed illegal by a competent court of law, was also at the meeting. This, in our view, speaks volumes of a country that, on the one hand, condemns military rule and, on the other, rolls out the red carpet for past usurpers of political power.  Besides, it sends a wrong signal to the international community about the nation’s preparedness to break with its inglorious past.

We recall that it is the practice of every departing military regime to bequeath to the next civilian administration a constitution designed to protect its interest, hence the inclusion of ex-military rulers as members of the Council of State. We also recall that the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria made a half-hearted attempt, on March 11 this year, to correct a few of these aberrations through the “Bill on the Remuneration for Former Presidents, Heads of State, Heads of Federal Legislative Houses and Chief Justices of the Federation and Ancillary Matters”, which courageously excluded the former military rulers from ex-Heads of State qualified to draw retirement benefits from the public exchequer. Indeed, while leading the Senate debate, the Chairman of the National Planning, Economic Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Committee of the House, Zainab Kure, declared: “The thrust of the Bill is essentially to amend Decree 32 of 1999 and ensure that only democratically elected former Presidents are entitled in the schedule to the Bill”. The Senate President, David Mark, equally enthused: “This is to discourage other ways of getting to power through unconstitutional means. The only way recognised by the Constitution is through the ballot box, and not through the barrel of the gun.”

By implication, we are calling on the federal and state legislatures now engaged in the constitutional amendment exercise to add this issue to the list of proposed amendments. Indeed all provisions in the military-bequeathed Constitution that are not in synch with democratic tenets should be expunged. We strongly believe, however, that a more holistic approach to putting in place a people-oriented and democracy-friendly constitution is to go back to the basic principles of the 1963 Republican Constitution, which had no distorting input of the military rulers. Those projected as promoters of democracy in Nigeria should be seen to have credible democratic antecedents.