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| National Assembly, Abuja |
by John Ameh,
Abuja
Nigerians
have rejected the inclusion of rotational presidency, immunity for the
President and governors as well as state police in the ongoing amendments to
the 1999 Constitution.
They
also kicked against the clamour for resource control by oil producing communities
and the call to raise the derivation principle from the current 13 per cent to
20 per cent.
These
views were in the collated results of their views on the amendment, made public
by the House of Representatives in Abuja on Thursday.
The
results came from the People’s Public Sessions conducted in the 360 Federal
Constituencies on November 10, 2012 by its Ad-Hoc Committee on Constitution
Review.
The
committee, headed by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr. Emeka Ihedioha,
produced a 43-item template for the public sessions, drawn from the memoranda
submitted to it by many individuals and interest groups in the country.
According
to the results, Nigerians neither want the presidency to rotate between the
North and the South nor between the six geopolitical zones.
On
a question, “Should a provision be inserted in the constitution for the
rotation of the Office of the President between the Northern and Southern parts
of the country”, 80 constituencies voted ‘Yes’, while 275 voted ‘No’. Five were
undecided, making 360.
Similarly,
147 constituencies supported the rotation of the office between the six
geopolitical zones, while the majority of 210 opposed it. Three constituencies
were undecided on the issue.
At
the state level, the results indicated that Nigerians did not want the office
of governor to rotate between the three senatorial districts either. One
hundred and eight-one constituencies voted against the proposal, while 175
supported it. Four constituencies were undecided.
However,
they supported retaining the present two-term tenure of four years for
president and governors in the constitution.
They
also rejected immunity for the President, Vice-President and Governors when it
relates to criminal offences.
However,
they backed immunity for the affected political office-holders on matters
relating to “civil proceedings while in office”.
Two
hundred and twenty-five constituencies supported amending Section 308 of the
constitution to allow immunity to cover “only civil proceedings”, while 132
opposed it.
Nigerians
also rejected the contentious issue of state police, according to the results.
The
majority of 307 constituencies kicked against amending Section 214 (1) of the
constitution to establish state police. Fifty-three constituencies supported
state police.
On
resource control, voters rejected a proposal to “implement the practice of
federalism that allows states to control up to 50 per cent of their resources
and pay the remainder to the Federation”.
While
123 constituencies supported resource control, the majority of 236
constituencies opposed it. Five others were undecided.
Other
contentious issues voted on included financial autonomy for local government
councils, independent candidature, voting rights for Nigerians in the Diaspora
and parliamentary versus presidential system of government.
At
the presentation ceremonies on Thursday, the Speaker of the House, Mr. Aminu
Tambuwal, promised Nigerians that they would respect their views while
considering the results.
He
stated that the review process would continue to be “transparent”, adding that
the House was open to criticisms and further suggestions.
Source: Punch newspaper
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