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A whiff of confusion yesterday heralded the announcement of the take off of the amended constitution as the deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, who initially said the section which grants financial independence to state houses of assemblies got the required assent, was forced to back-pedal, few minutes into the news conference. Mr Ekweremadu said he had cross-checked the facts and discovered that the section could not pass through because only 22 houses supported it, instead of the required 26. According to him, Katsina State, initially believed to have voted in favour of the clause, had presented two conflicting versions and its vote was therefore invalidated.

Section 121 of the Constitution which deals with financial independence for state houses of assemblies did not receive the support of the state governors who, as reported exclusively by NEXT on Sunday on July 11, pressured their legislators to vote against it because it would weaken the hold of the executive on the lawmakers..

The new laws

Under the new Constitution, elections are to be held in January next year, which is a slight departure from the past when elections held in April and inaugurations occur on May 29.

The document which is referred to as the first amendment of the 1999 Constitution, and had costs the country some N5 billion, stipulates that elections should hold on a date not earlier than 150 days and not later than 120 days before the expiration of the term of political office holders.

Mr. Ekweremadu, who chaired the senate committee on the amendment of the constitution said, the senate is aware of the little time left before the elections and will assist INEC to achieve a crises-free election.

He said the senate is preparing to pass a new electoral act that will extend the deadline for voters’ registration and submission of candidates’ name to INEC to two months before the actual elections.

All states, except Bauchi, voted in favour of the new electioneering time frame. The state had preferred the old time frame which stipulated that elections shall not take place earlier than 60 days and not later than 30 days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of that office.

Bauchi State voted ‘yes’ on only five of the 66 sections where amendments to the constitution were proposed by the national assembly. However, more than half of the amendments sought by the federal legislators were turned down by their state counterparts. Only 29 of the 66 sections were passed by the required two-third majority of the states.

Other sections of the constitution that were amended in the constitution include sections that grant the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) financial autonomy and section 135(2) which says that, “in the event of re-run election, the time spent in the office before the date the election was annulled, shall be taken into account” for the president. This same rule also applies to all other political offices.

Only last week, a Federal High Court sitting in Jos, Plateau State ruled that the tenure of Segun Oni, the Ekiti State governor, ends in 2011, temporarily putting paid to the controversy over whether a fresh four year tenure should start from when he won the April 2009 re-run elections in the state.

Section 145, which deals with the transfer of power between the president and vice president, was also amended. It now reads: “Whenever the president is proceeding on vacation or is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, he shall transmit a written declaration to the president of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives to that effect, until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, the vice president shall perform the functions of the president as Acting president.” The constitution also provided that in the event that the president was unable to transmit a letter over his absence, in 21 days, the vice president will act in his stead. The rule is also applicable to state governors who failed to hand over properly.

This has hopefully saved the nation a repeat of what happened in November last year when the late President Umaru Yar’Adua left the country without transmitting power to the vice president.

The amendments also give the national assembly the power to make laws to ensure that political parties observe the practice of internal democracy in section 228.

A significant departure from the past constitution is Section 233 which now empowers the Supreme Court to hear the governor and deputy governors’ election appeal cases while the court of original jurisdiction for such cases remains the Appeal Court. The High Court is empowered to hear election cases over elections into the Senate and House of Representatives. Under the old order, governorship election cases end at the Appeal Court level.

Rejected sections

The Independent candidacy clause which was the core of electoral reforms promoted by the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was dropped by the states.

The introduction of this clause followed the recommendations of the Electoral Reform Committee led by Mohammad Uwais. The clause stipulates that aspirants for political offices - including offices of the governor and president - need not be members of any political party.

Although the provision enjoyed great support from the federal lawmakers, the state assemblies rejected it. They also rejected the attempt to delete section 68 (g) which prohibits carpet- crossing for legislators from the constitution.

Mr. Ekweremadu, however, said the national assembly will reintroduce the rejected sections in the next constitution amendment process, ”...hoping that state assemblies will be disposed to pass them then.” He added that the next constitution review will focus on state creation, fiscal federation, state police and devolution of powers.