The Senate on Wednesday rose
from about two-hour executive
session and announced the
suspension of its threat to override
President Goodluck Jonathan’s veto
on the Fourth Alteration Bill 2015
which seeks to amend the 1999
Constitution.
Senate President, David Mark, who
addressed the members after the
closed-door session, said that as
lawmakers, they owed it a duty to
abide by a Supreme Court decision
that the status quo be maintained.
Mark said,” I think it is proper for
me because of the importance of
the issue, to make a very simple
but straight forward unambiguous
statement. We are lawmakers and
we will not be law-breakers.
“We are not just lawmakers, we are
very senior responsible citizens
and very senior lawmakers and this
is the apex of law making in this
country.
“Therefore, on the issue of the
current constitution review that is
before the Supreme Court, we want
to assure Nigerians that we will not
break any law in this country.
“We will take appropriate action
that will ensure that democracy
survives but I will also want to warn
that we should not be taken for
granted by the executive but once
more let me assure Nigerians that
as lawmakers, we will not be law-
breakers.”
The Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma –
Egba, who addressed journalists
after plenary, said the Committee
on the Review of the 1999
Constitution, had the privilege of
briefing the Senate in plenary after
President Goodluck Jonathan had
vetoed the document.
He said the Senate would
challenge the ex parte injunction
by the Supreme Court asking it to
maintain the status quo on the
matter despite the fact that the
necessary procedure for amending
the constitution was followed by
the National Assembly.
He said, “We have a legal option to
vigorously challenge the order of
the court which was made ex parte;
it was made without us being put
on notice. I believe we can get the
court to quickly determine that and
we intend to pursue that option.
We should expect this legal
challenge as soon as possible.
On the issue of four-fifth, Ndoma-
Egba said the Executive was wrong
by claiming that the National
Assembly did not form the required
quorum while amending certain
sections of the constitution which
required four-fifth votes.
He said, “It is not correct that we
did not form the four-fifth quorum,
our records are very clear, the votes
and proceedings are there and we
have gone through the records
again and we certainly met the
constitutional requirement of four-
fifth.
“The Attorney-General of the
Federation who is alleging that we
did not meet that constitutional
requirement has not exhibited any
document to show that we did not
but from our records we clearly did.
“We are to conclude that we are
suddenly confronted with this
ambush.We think it is in bad faith
and it is regrettable. We are going
to court to challenge the court
order.
“We were not put on notice; we did
not have any notice and we were
not represented. We are
lawmakers not law-breakers; if
you look at the 1999 Constitution,
the Jurisdiction conferred on the
Supreme Court did not include this
kind of situation where one arm of
government is having an issue with
another arm of government.
“That jurisdiction was conferred by
an Act of the National Assembly in
2002, which means it is a
jurisdiction that we voluntarily
gave to the Supreme Court and
because that jurisdiction came from
us, we must be seen to be obeying
the laws of the land.
“The constitution has given the
judiciary the power to adjudicate in
situations like this and the matter
is before the judiciary, we
acknowledge that.So the best way
out is to go pursue that order and
vigorously pursue its being set
aside and that is exactly what we
are going to do immediately.’’
The senators had on Tuesday
vowed to begin the process of
overriding the President’s veto
today (Wednesday) by taking the
first reading of the bill to adopt the
gazette of the controversial
amendment bill.
Jonathan had in a letter dated April
13 addressed to Mark and Speaker
of the House of Representatives,
Aminu Tambuwal, announced his
decision to reject the Constitution
(Alteration) Bill 2015.
He had cited deliberate attempts
by the lawmakers to whittle down
presidential powers and their
failure to strictly adhere to
constitutional provisions on the
amendments to Section 9 of the
constitution by observing four-fifth
majority support in each chamber
before it could amend it.
The president also claimed that the
National Assembly only observed
two-thirds majority support for the
amendment instead of the four-
fifth stipulated by the constitution
before amending the section.
The proposed amendment to the
section strips the President the
power to sign an amendment bill
before it could become effective.
Following the President’s letter,
the Senate on April 15 demanded
the return of the bill to the National
Assembly.
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
