The National Assembly yesterday curbed
the sweeping powers conferred on President Goodluck Jonathan by the
emergency rule proclamation instruments, restricting him to exercising
control on security matters only.
Federal Government official gazettes
submitted to the lawmakers had given the president wide-ranging powers
on the emergency states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, including powers to
issue orders to the governors as well as to utilise their funds.
When the Senate and the House of
Representatives first debated the emergency proclamation behind closed
doors on Tuesday, they placed conditions and set up committees to
harmonise their positions.
Yesterday, the two chambers received
and adopted a harmonised version of their resolutions, limiting
President Jonathan’s emergency powers in the three states to be on
matters of security.
In the harmonised report, an amended
clause now says: “The President may give directions to a state governor
or local government chairman directly or through his designate or a duly
authorised person with respect to the administration of the emergency
area, in matters of public order, peace and security only.”
Also, the Senate and the House said
powers of the president over funds of the emergency states should only
be to “provide for the protection, documentation, return,
re-integration, resettlement, rehabilitation, compensation and
remuneration of persons affected by this order.”
The two chambers further introduced a
new clause in the gazette saying the president shall have powers to
“provide for payment of compensation to victims of terrorism on or
before emergency proclamation.”
Speaking soon after the House adopted
the harmonised report, deputy spokesman Rep Victor Ogene said the
lawmakers’ decision was to protect democratic tenets and accountability.
“Clause 3 (2E) page 7 of the gazetted
declaration submitted by the executive talks about utilisation of funds
of any state of local government in emergency areas. But we are not
comfortable with the clause because we feel funds coming to the state
and local governments should not be used for emergency, there is the
tendency for anyone to want to prolong the time of emergency,” he said.
Constitutional lawyer Professor Auwalu
Yadudu said the National Assembly was right to have curbed the powers
that President Jonathan sought under emergency rule.
“It is difficult to find any support
in the constitution for the president to exercise the powers he now
wants to claim under the gazette,” he said. “The powers of the executive
governors of the states are clearly defined whether in relation to
appointments or spending of money and those powers are subject to the
authority of the states Houses of Assembly. If the House of Assembly of a
state exists and it has appropriated funds, I do not see the president
tempering with that or modifying that or even questioning that. The
constitution does not give him such powers and you cannot under the
guise of emergency powers exercise any such powers.”
He added: “So if the National Assembly
seeks to revise that or nullify that or if they stipulate conditions
for improving the state of emergency, they will he right in doing that. I
think it will be political inter-meddling by the president in a manner
that he lacks any constitutional basis, even to do such a political
meddling.”
But a senior Kaduna-based lawyer,
Barrister Aliyu Umar, said the National Assembly lacked the
constitutional power to amend the emergency gazettes presented by the
president.
“The legislators are empowered
constitutionally to either approve or disapprove the emergency and not
to amend or change the gazette. If they find anything wrong in the
gazette, they are to disapprove it and not to change or amend the nature
of the declaration,” he said.
For his part, Barrister Yahaya Mahmood
(SAN), said the legislators amended the gazettes probably because they
know the financial status of the affected states.
“The National Assembly knows how much
it appropriates for security in the current budget. It also knows the
meagre resources of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States. That may be why the
National Assembly amended the proclamation to stipulate that the Federal
Government not the states should finance the operation,” Mahmood said.
Yesterday, the president’s adviser on
National Assembly matters, Senator Joy Emordi, commended the lawmakers
for the unanimous approval of the emergency proclamation. She said
senators and House of Representatives members have demonstrated that
national interest must at all times be placed above partisan and
sectional considerations.
Meanwhile, speaker of the House of
Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, said the House would closely
monitor the implementation of the emergency rule to ensure troops adhere
to the rules of engagement.
Tambuwal gave the assurance while
hosting a delegation of the N-Katalyst Forum, a non-partisan group of
professionals committed to the enthronement of good governance and
political justice in Nigeria.
He said the House had directed its
committees to keep a close tab on the military operations going on in
the three states, and that it will invite the Chief of Defence Staff to
brief the lawmakers on a monthly basis.
“Nigeria was not at war but was only
witnessing a breakdown of law and order in some of its component states.
Even with the level of insecurity in the emergency areas, there was
need for the military to abide by the rules of engagement,” Tambuwal
said.
The group led by Dr. Jibril Ibrahim
said their visit was to solicit the support of the House in prevailing
on the Federal Government to respect human rights in the course of
combating the insurgency in the emergency areas.
source: daily trust
No comments:
Post a Comment