The tokenism of devolution

THE GUARDIAN

By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa

Last week, it was widely reported that the President assented to sixteen new Bills sent to him by the National Assembly, most of which relate to the amendment of the Constitution. This has been in the pipeline for a long time, being a ritual with every legislative regime in Nigeria. It is taken as job for the boys, to enable certain privileged legislators go around the country in the name of gathering the views of the people for constitutional amendment, at the end of which we were usually fed with stories of lack of cooperation by the State Houses of Assembly and then it will end up as another case of money down the drain.

So much money was spent on this project, so much time went into it and sufficient resources was amassed such that it would have been a great disservice to our dear country should these efforts be rendered futile. For this and other reasons, the National Assembly deserves commendation and the President himself has earned his place in history for making these tireless efforts to have achieved some form of federalism, no matter the manner it was done. However, it would seem that the ruling party was very frugal in the consideration of the real issues that require amendment in the Constitution, given the time and resources that went into this exercise. No other body could have achieved constitutional amendment apart from the National Assembly.

Deliberately and without mincing words, the framers of the Constitution in section 4 thereof established the Legislature as the First Arm of government, because law is needed to define all other aspects of human existence. It is thus expected that through its additional powers of approval and oversight functions, the legislature will work to curb the excesses of the executive arm of government, especially in situations where retired military men have hijacked the democratic process, having in their prime usurped power through the ignoble strategy of coup d’etat, only to turn around in retirement to transform themselves into democratic dictators. Let us now consider the tokens delivered so far, at least from the news reports, by way of constitutional amendment.
 

The President was said to have signed into law 16 bills seeking to amend various portions of the 1999 Constitution. According to the information from the Office of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ahmed Wase, who is the co-chairman of the Committee, the Bills assented to by the President included those devolving powers from the Federal Government to the States as some items were moved from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List in the Constitution. The power devolution Bills that passed legislative requirements include those on power, railway, airports and prisons as well as biometric and criminal records.