National Assembly moves to curtail FG’s powers

• Drastic changes on the card
• Railway to be removed from exclusive list
• Time frame for President/Governors’ assent to bill to be
modified

Drastic changes to the 1999 Constitution by the National
Assembly are on the way, with the federal government looking likely
to be stripped of some of the powers it currently wields.
More power will devolve to the states under the proposed
amendments, some of which were adopted at the annual joint retreat
of the Senate and House of Representatives Committee on the Review
of the 1999 Constitution which ended yesterday in Lagos.

The lawmakers believe strongly that the constitution now
requires fundamental reforms in the interest of the nation’s
development.

Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu told reporters at the
retreat yesterday that some of the contentious issues in the
document would be reviewed to meet the yearning of the generality
of Nigerians.

One of the major reforms in the offing is the removal of
railways from the exclusive list, he said.

It will be transferred to the concurrent list to allow states
with the means to provide rail services.

He said: “We have broken all the issues into specific bills.
Between yesterday (Friday) and today (Saturday) we have looked at
about 23 separate bills with separate issues.

“The idea is to ensure that by the time we vote, each of them
succeeds or fails on its own. When we conclude the work, we’ll send
it to the house to approve.

“We will collate and ensure that the provisions of the
constitution have been fulfilled regarding the alteration, and we
will send it to the president for his assent. And the president
will decide which one to assent to or not to assent to.

“The implication therefore is that if he assents to some, then
those one become part of the constitution. And the one he refuses
to assent to, then we might decide whether to override the
veto.

“So, we want each of them to have a separate life of its own.
And this is based on our own experience in the last exercise where
everything was in one single bill and when the president withheld
his assent, all of them collapsed.

“This is just an improvement on what we did last time. It is
something we innovated based on our experience in the last
exercise.”

The Constitution review committee, according to him, also
considered the time frame within which the president or state
governor has to assent to a bill and the issue of
restructuring.

His words: “You know we have been talking about the
restructuring of Nigeria. One of the components of restructuring is
that they are saying that there is too much power in the hands of
the federal government and we need to strip some of them from the
federal government.

“What we have done is to look at the issue. Some items will be
removed from the exclusive list to the concurrent list where the
federal and the states can make laws regarding some of those
items.

“And where there is a conflict, the laws of the National
Assembly will prevail.

“So, things like railways will have to be moved to the
concurrent list. The idea is that states can build railways within
their territory and then a couple of states can even decide to
build railways across their states.

“The federal government can also build railways across the
country and make policy around it.”

There will continue to be a minimum wage applicable to the
public and private sectors.

“There should be minimum wage for both the public sector and
private sector, that is to say, that if it is N5000 don’t pay any
person less than N5000 but can be increased

“If Lagos has more money, it can pay beyond the minimum wage.
All those who don’t have money cannot pay below the minimum way no
matter how poor they are.

“So, in that way we have a minimum standard for workers in
Nigeria.”

The committee plans to hold more consultations on the
possibility of scrapping the joint local government account.

“The challenge there has been how do you take care of the issue
of teachers’ salaries because it is from the joint local
governments/state account that primary school teachers’ salaries
are paid,” he said.

“So, we want to be sure that if we remove the joint local
government- state account we will not jeopardize the payment of
teacher salaries.

“That is a very contentious issue, so we said we have to do
further consultations with the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and
other stakeholders before we can take a decision on that to be sure
that we don’t create more problems when we are trying to solve and
existing problem. “So, that is not part of what we are going to
present to the National Assembly when we get back.

“We believe we have done sufficient work. This is an incremental
approach that we have adopted in the amendment of the constitution.
So, what we are saying that after we have finished with this, if we
still have more time before election, otherwise maybe the next
assembly will decide what to do.”

• Drastic changes on the card
• Railway to be removed from exclusive list
• Time frame for President/Governors’ assent to bill to be
modified

Drastic changes to the 1999 Constitution by the National
Assembly are on the way, with the federal government looking likely
to be stripped of some of the powers it currently wields.
More power will devolve to the states under the proposed
amendments, some of which were adopted at the annual joint retreat
of the Senate and House of Representatives Committee on the Review
of the 1999 Constitution which ended yesterday in Lagos.

The lawmakers believe strongly that the constitution now
requires fundamental reforms in the interest of the nation’s
development.

Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu told reporters at the
retreat yesterday that some of the contentious issues in the
document would be reviewed to meet the yearning of the generality
of Nigerians.

One of the major reforms in the offing is the removal of
railways from the exclusive list, he said.

It will be transferred to the concurrent list to allow states
with the means to provide rail services.

He said: “We have broken all the issues into specific bills.
Between yesterday (Friday) and today (Saturday) we have looked at
about 23 separate bills with separate issues.

“The idea is to ensure that by the time we vote, each of them
succeeds or fails on its own. When we conclude the work, we’ll send
it to the house to approve.

“We will collate and ensure that the provisions of the
constitution have been fulfilled regarding the alteration, and we
will send it to the president for his assent. And the president
will decide which one to assent to or not to assent to.

“The implication therefore is that if he assents to some, then
those one become part of the constitution. And the one he refuses
to assent to, then we might decide whether to override the
veto.

“So, we want each of them to have a separate life of its own.
And this is based on our own experience in the last exercise where
everything was in one single bill and when the president withheld
his assent, all of them collapsed.

“This is just an improvement on what we did last time. It is
something we innovated based on our experience in the last
exercise.”

The Constitution review committee, according to him, also
considered the time frame within which the president or state
governor has to assent to a bill and the issue of
restructuring.

His words: “You know we have been talking about the
restructuring of Nigeria. One of the components of restructuring is
that they are saying that there is too much power in the hands of
the federal government and we need to strip some of them from the
federal government.

“What we have done is to look at the issue. Some items will be
removed from the exclusive list to the concurrent list where the
federal and the states can make laws regarding some of those
items.

“And where there is a conflict, the laws of the National
Assembly will prevail.

“So, things like railways will have to be moved to the
concurrent list. The idea is that states can build railways within
their territory and then a couple of states can even decide to
build railways across their states.

“The federal government can also build railways across the
country and make policy around it.”

There will continue to be a minimum wage applicable to the
public and private sectors.

“There should be minimum wage for both the public sector and
private sector, that is to say, that if it is N5000 don’t pay any
person less than N5000 but can be increased

“If Lagos has more money, it can pay beyond the minimum wage.
All those who don’t have money cannot pay below the minimum way no
matter how poor they are.

“So, in that way we have a minimum standard for workers in
Nigeria.”

The committee plans to hold more consultations on the
possibility of scrapping the joint local government account.

“The challenge there has been how do you take care of the issue
of teachers’ salaries because it is from the joint local
governments/state account that primary school teachers’ salaries
are paid,” he said.

“So, we want to be sure that if we remove the joint local
government- state account we will not jeopardize the payment of
teacher salaries.

“That is a very contentious issue, so we said we have to do
further consultations with the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and
other stakeholders before we can take a decision on that to be sure
that we don’t create more problems when we are trying to solve and
existing problem. “So, that is not part of what we are going to
present to the National Assembly when we get back.

“We believe we have done sufficient work. This is an incremental
approach that we have adopted in the amendment of the constitution.
So, what we are saying that after we have finished with this, if we
still have more time before election, otherwise maybe the next
assembly will decide what to do.”