Last week Monday, the leadership of the National Assembly disclosed that only 11 State Houses of Assembly had accepted the 44 bills proposed by the federal lawmakers to effect alterations in the 1999 Constitution. The remaining 25 states according to the Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege are putting forward a quid pro quo. They want four items inserted in the Constitution before they can sign on the 44 proposed legislations, which require the approval of two-thirds of the state Assemblies, to become parts of the Constitution. Two-thirds of 36 is 24, so the dissenters are in a clear majority and can effectively determine if the billions of Naira from the public purse and the humongous man-hour spent, moving round the country, to aggregate opinions, will go to waste or not.
Since they made a joint request, we can call them G25, for ease of reference. Their demands, according to Omo-Agege, include the passage of bills establishing State Judicial Council and State Police, institutionalizing legislative bureaucracy and streamlining the procedure for removing presiding officers of state Assemblies.
At the Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture 2022 series event where Omo-Agege made the disclosure, his principal, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan also openly pleaded with Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, who also made a physical appearance, to help the NASS leadership lobby his colleague-governors not to kill the constitution amendment exercise. That spoke volumes.
One, the Lawan leadership recognized that the 25 state Assemblies holding out on the 44 propositions, are just doing the bidding of their governors, despite the demands being a combo of legislative and executive desires. After the failure of the Governors to get the federal lawmakers to “take care” of their interests especially on judicial and police reforms, when constitutional experts hired by the NASS leadership were weaving together the proposals from the ego-political consultations, which the political class, practically hijacked, the state helmsmen obviously resorted to using their leverage on the state legislature, to force National Assembly back to the negotiation table, also packaging the state lawmakers’ interests, into the four-point demand.
For Lawan to resort to an open appeal to the 25 dissenting governors through el-Rufai, who is one of them, is an admission that the G25 holds the aces in the Deal or No Deal situation presented the nation. And except the obviously-desperate NASS leadership, can pull a game-changer, like going after disaffected state lawmakers, especially those who lost party tickets for re-election, (and they are many), to orchestrate a vote on the proposed amendments, it is almost a dead-end for the exercise, without giving the governors what they want.
Lawan definitely sounded desperate pleading with el-Rufai. Hear him, “Even if it is one month left, we have the capacity, working together, to ensure that we pass some of the legislations that are required in a very expeditious manner. Please (directing to el-Rufai), lobby your governor-colleagues for us because I can see that you do that very well.”
Here, the country’s Number Three citizen sounded desperate, ambitious and helpless at the same time. Now that it is certain he isn’t returning as a senator in the next Assembly, let alone leading the legislature, the amendment exercise is like a legacy project for him and his deputy who is eyeing the governorship of Delta and both men are understandably seeking to leave behind a legislative imprint.
Desperate, helpless people always give what they have to, to get out of situations. With the general elections approaching and hundreds of the federal lawmakers already denied re-election tickets, the enthusiasm to fight for Bills that won’t directly impact their exit, may be non-existent, practically compelling the also-exiting but legacy-seeking Lawan and Omo-Agege, to do deals with the G25 governors.
That Lawan had to figuratively prostrate openly for el-Rufai, shows his poor negotiation skills, because the governors’ desire to control police and judiciary in their domains, had never been hidden. Around the period the amendment exercise was gathering steam, el-Rufai, was in a major face-off with the National Judicial Council, the country’s judicial regulatory agency, over the appointment of judges for his state. He was very open about lobbying the federal lawmakers to get the Council off the back of governors. Before his “dance” with the Council, tens of state governors, since the return of civil rule, had fought bitterly with the Council, particularly over the appointment of Chief Judge for their states.
Most of the time, preferences of the Council and governors, as the appointing authority, are in conflict. While Council is always insisting on appointment according to seniority, governors could have reasons not to want the most senior. The recommending authority, which is the Council, won’t yield and the appointing authority, will want to have his way. Examples abound; Rotimi Amaechi Vs NJC, Murtala NyakoVs NJC, Rauf Aregbesola Vs NJC, Ganduje Vs NJC, Ben Ayade Vs NJC, Yahaya Bello Vs NJC, et al, et al.
But somehow, NJC always wins and the governors must have reasoned that the only way to avoid the appointment confrontation is to take NJC out of the judicial business of the states, just like the Federal Judicial Service Commission, which has a subnational substitute in State Judicial Service Commission. NASS advisers overruled the request to scrap NJC when suggestions were being debated, though the Senior Advocates, concurred that the Council, as a federal body, in true federalism and constitutional democracy, which Nigeria preaches, is an anathema.
Despite the constitutional concern surrounding the existence of the Council, which pays the salaries of all Nigerian judges, at federal and state levels, the federal lawmakers were persuaded by their hired experts, to let the Council live, without discounting the discreet lobbying by judicial stakeholders, who feared that the nation’s judiciary could regress into the gutters, where it was before the Justice Kayode Esho panel on Reform/Reorganization of the Judiciary, inaugurated December 29, 1993 and which submitted its report on July 5, 1994, rescued it, with the recommendation of a regulatory agency, to be known as NJC.
In fact, instead of balkanising NJC, NASS went ahead to propose a uniform retirement and pension rights for judicial officers, which is expected to put all the issues of welfare of judges, under the purview of NJC, leaving the states with just capital projects. Of course, the governors who are already demanding a N66 billion refund from the federal government allegedly spent on capital projects, would have none of it. You want to put your money where your mouth is.
Now, the governors have both the yam and the knife, as Yoruba will describe someone at a great advantage in a give-and-take situation. Of the two issues on which they seek greater control, Police and Judiciary, we wait to see if the Lawan leadership would be able to negotiate in a way that the nation, would not be greatly hurt by the desires of the governors. Judiciary is an arm of government, and more than 70% of the judicial officers serve at the state level, while the Police force, is a just an executive body, though a powerful tool of repression and oppression. History will be waiting as the quid pro quo, goes down to the wire.
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