Despite initial controversy that trailed attempt to smuggle new
constitution into the report of the national conference, its leadership,
on Monday, presented draft copies of a new constitution to delegates.
While most of the delegates saw the introduction of the draft
constitution as a proactive measure by the conference leadership, few
northern delegates described it as a “strange and “illegal” document
that must be discarded.
Trouble started
when the conference secretary, Professor Valerie
Azinge, came to address the delegates on behalf of the chairman, Justice
Idris Kutigi and his deputy, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, who were absent
at the resumed sitting.
Azinge told the delegates that she was mandated to inform them that there would be no formal sitting until 10.00 a.m tomorrow.
She urged the delegates to collect and study the documents prepared for them before the conference resumed sitting tomorrow.
The four voluminous documents distributed to the delegates included
the over 3,000 main report, which came in two volumes and bounded draft
constitution.
She added that to make for easy reading, “we have also extracted the
third column, which is the fusion of the existing constitution with the
amendments as a draft on one hand and a bill to introduce the amendments
on the other hand.”
However, Mallam Sani Zoro, a representative of the civil society
organisation, raised concerns over the absence of Justice Kutigi and
Professor Akinyemi.
He commended the leadership of the conference for given the delegates
a draft constitution which, he said, he did not expect, while assuring
that delegates would go through them as directed.
Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Chief Dan Wuanyanwu, however, said
it was not possible to read all the documents between Monday and
tomorrow, adding that it was not also possible to exhaust deliberations
on all the documents between Wednesday and Thursday.
He, therefore, requested for extension of resumed sitting to Monday,
which was nonetheless turned down by the conference secretary on the
ground that such extension was beyond her mandate.
Chief Mike Ozekhome said the conference had the power to write a new
constitution for the country, adding that what the leadership had done
was do a draft constitution, which encompasses the old constitution and
the amendments.
“We don’t need any high-tech knowledge to get these thing done. The
whole world is waiting for us. We only had one or two challenges; those
are the areas we have to look at,” he said.
Senator Ibrahim Mantu also described the introduction of a draft constitution into the final reports as a welcome development.
This, according to him, would forestall a situation where certain
amendments were smuggled into the constitution other than resolutions of
the conference.
He added that drafting of a new constitution by the conference
secretariat would tremendously ease the work of the executives and, even
the National Assembly.
However, Professor Auwalu Yadudu differed on the introduction of a
draft constitution and written to the leadership of the conference and
delegates to protest that.
“All I know is that we have no mandate to write a constitution and we
are not a Constituent Assembly. We are unelected, though we have
distinguished members who can do a good job.
“I will look at the draft with a pinch of salt, but I don’t think it will be our business to consider it,” he said.
Yadudu disclosed that the northern delegates forum would meet to take
a position on the matter, saying “personally, I’m opposed to writing of
a new constitution and have already written an open letter to the
leadership of the conference and delegates.”
A delegate under the platform of Local Government Administration,
Chief Sola Ebiseni, said the inclusion of the draft constitution was not
misplaced.
Ebiseni, a commissioner in Ondo State and one of the vocal voices at
the conference, argued that the conference had taken several
far-reaching decisions on the constitution and several laws in this
country.
“The present constitution, in my own view, has been so touched by the
several resolutions of the conference that I think what the leadership
had done was a two-pronged approach.
“In my own view, what the leadership did to have a draft
constitution, which will incorporate all the amendments and resolutions,
is okay,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, Adamu Bello Waziri, former Minister of
Police Affairs, said the draft constitution was nothing to raise
eyebrows about.
Former governor of old Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, said
there was nothing unusual about drafting a new constitution for Nigeria.
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