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Evidentiary hearing
into the cases of some former state executives is yet to commence,
nearly four years after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) filed criminal charges against them, the chairman of the
commission, Farida Waziri, has said.

Mrs. Farida Waziri,
who was speaking in Abuja yesterday at the public presentation of
Anti-Corruption Handbook authored by Tabi Joda, listed several
instances where the slow pace of court processes stalled the fight
against corruption.

Some of the ex-governors include Ayo Fayose, Saminu Turaki, and Joshua Dariye.

Mr. Fayose was
prosecuted on December 17, 2006 on a 51-count charge on financial
misappropriation totaling N1.2 billion; Turaki’s trial also commenced
on July 13, 2007, when he was arraigned on a 32-count charge for
laundering N36 billion; and Dariye’s was also set on the same date,
based on prima facie case of corrupt enrichment and money laundering of
N700 million.

While reiterating
her call for the establishment of special courts to try corruption
cases, Mrs. Waziri said court processes have frustrated the work of the
agency.

“I have also called
for laws that will enable us sequestrate the assets of accused persons
and convert them to government assets upon their conviction. Whereas
those are long term goals, I think the judiciary can do a lot to speed
up our trials,” she said.

She also added that
the commission has recovered $3.5 billion as proceeds of crime and over
N3 billion after investigating tax cases, which has been forwarded to
the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

Minister of Police
Affairs, Adamu Waziri, and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bell Adoke, in
their goodwill messages both agreed that fighting corruption was the
collective responsibility of Nigerians. Mr. Adoke promised that attack
on EFCC operatives would be a thing of the past.

Mrs. Waziri said the police must be reformed to execute its constitutional duty.

The deputy Senate
president, Ike Ekweremadu, who is also the head of the Senate committee
on constitution review, has affirmed that the president need not sign
the amended constitution before it becomes binding and effective.

“I’m surprised that such an argument is coming up,” he told reporters in an interview in Abuja, earlier in the week.

He argued that the
constitution will automatically become effective once the required
two-third of the state Houses of Assembly assent to it.

“I don’t know who
is engineering that because section 9 says an Act of the National
Assembly for the alteration of constitution will be conducted in a
manner provided by that section 9. Don’t forget we copied from the
American constitution. Once the American Congress passes the
Constitution Amendment and it is sent to the state, just like in our
own, and you have the requisite number, it becomes automatically
operative. No American president has ever signed a constitutional
amendment. “

Last bus stop

He further argued
that for the constitution to make provision for two-third of the
members of the National Assembly and two-third of the state Houses of
Assembly to ratify it means that that alone is the “last bus stop.” The
deputy Senate president has always argued that since Nigeria’s
constitution is modelled after that of the United States of America, it
will not require the assent of the president to alter it.

“Amendment of the
constitution, according to section 9, does not require presidential
assent,” he said in a Senate workshop in Kaduna, October last year.

He had argued
against the opinion of Tayo Oyetibo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who
lectured the Senate on steps to successfully amend the Constitution in
that workshop.

Mr. Oyetibo had
said that unlike the American Constitution, which states clearly that a
law is valid with the assent of a certain majority of their National
and State Houses of Assembly, the Nigerian Constitution is ambiguous
about it, and that that leaves the president with the power to validate
any law.

Mr. Oyetibo then
advised the senators to rephrase section 9 of the 1999 Constitution to
reflect the validity of a law, with just the assent of a certain
majority of the National and State Houses of Assembly.

The deputy Senate
president also confirmed that the National Assembly is yet to transmit
the harmonised copy of the draft amended Constitution to the State
Assembly.

“We are meeting
with the Houses of Assembly on the 15th of this month to formally hand
over the harmonised version to them,” Mr. Ekweramdu said.

“We appeal to them
to deal with it in a matter of a week or two. We intend to extend
invitation to the governors, or at least find an opportunity of meeting
with them to also seek their support at this last lap of this exercise.
So, we are not expecting any problem.”

He further defended
the Senate’s position on some key issues in the amended constitution
that pitched the lawmakers against the public. Such issues like
allowing people indicted for corruption and embezzlement by
administrative panels to run for public offices, and cross carpeting
for elected lawmakers.

“The constitution
has made sufficient provisions on things that could disqualify you. If
you have been found guilty by a court for offences regarding
disqualification, you will not contest election. But it went further in
section 66(i) and said that if you are indicted by an administrative
panel of inquiry and that indictment is accepted by the Federal
Executive Council and State Executive Council, you are disqualified.
But we said no, that those other copious provisions, regarding areas of
disqualification on criminal ground, they are enough.

“Those who will be
disqualified are those who are found guilty by a court of competent
jurisdiction, and that is what is in our constitution. A lot of people
seem to misunderstand it clearly. In America, where we copied our own
constitution, people move from party A to B and they don’t lose their
seats. It is only the Parliament that it says if you cross carpet
without a genuine reason, you will lose your seat.

“But in the Executive, there is no such thing. Why isolate the
Parliament? And meanwhile, we have a provision in the constitution for
freedom of association. How do you reconcile it? And for you to amend
that section to say you cannot cross carpet, then you have to go and
amend the constitution regarding the freedom of association and that
requires a higher threshold,” Mr. Ekweramdu added

The All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP)
has called on the nominated INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega to create a
“re-branded INEC by flushing out all bad eggs” in the commission, as
soon as the National Assembly ratifies his appointment.

Sabo Muhammed, the party’s National
Director of Publicity, made the call in an interview with the News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi on Wednesday.

Mr. Muhammed, a former Public Relations Officer of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities when Mr Jega was its national president,
said, “notwithstanding Jega’s credibility and pedigree, government must
create an enabling environment for him to conduct a free, fair and
credible elections in 2011”.</

Constitutional
lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, has decried the ongoing process to amend the
1999 constitution, saying the process falls short of what the original
document stipulates.

Both arms of
national assembly, last week, agreed to forward the amended document to
the 36 states house of assembly for concurrence. But Mr Aturu said the
legislators “ought to have passed a resolution before passing the bill
and sending it to the states house of assembly.” He quoted section 9 of
the constitution, which stipulates that the “National Assembly can only
pass an act to amend the constitution when its proposal to amend the
constitution has been supported by two-thirds majority of all the
members of each chamber and the proposal is approved by the resolution
of at least 24 Houses of Assembly of the States.”

This section of the
constitution, which states the procedure to be adopted in amending the
constitution, according to the lawyer, has “simply been ignored or
deliberately trampled upon by the legislators. The implication of which
is that the whole exercise…is an exercise in futility, an unnecessary
waste of taxpayers’ money and an indefensible trivialisation of
legislative time.”

Mr Aturu said the
National Assembly has violated the 1999 constitution in the process of
trying to amend the constitution because in law, one cannot build
something on nothing and expect it to stand.

“The illegal process which the national assembly has embarked on will soon collapse,” he said.

Harmonised illegality

Mr Aturu expressed
shock at the pronouncement of the National Assembly that it has passed
a bill to amend the constitution, saying the lawmakers has only passed
a “harmonised illegality.”

“When a procedure
has been laid down in a statute for the doing of a thing, to do that
thing in a different way is an illegality,” he said. “If they go ahead
with the proceedings, anybody can challenge them to court to nullify
the whole process. It is better for the National Assembly to halt the
illegal process, recommence constitutional review by merely passing a
resolution and then take the resolution to the states for approval. If
they secure the resolution of 24 Houses, then they can pass the bill
for the amendment of the constitution. If not, then that is the end of
the attempt.”

The lawyer also warned against claims that the bill to amend the
constitution, once passed by the National Assembly, does not require
the assent of the president. Quoting Section 58 of the constitution, he
said: “the section makes it clear that a bill does not become law until
it has been assented to by the president; unless after a period of one
month, the National Assembly passes the bill by two thirds majority and
overrides as it were the president’s veto.”

The Oyo State governor, Alao Akala on Wednesday said that individual Nigerians need reform.

Mr. Akala, reacting

to the appointment of Attahiru Jega as new INEC boss, told aviation

correspondents at the Murtala Mohammed Airport 2 on Wednesday that

Nigerians although the clamour for political reforms is right,

Nigerians should reform their ways.

“Everyone is

talking about political reforms, but it is we in Nigeria that have to

reform ourselves,” he said. “What Nigerian people don’t know is this,

the chairman will not be everywhere in every election.”

The governor also lauded the appointment of Mr. Jega, and stated that the new INEC boss is worthy of the position.

“He has good track

records and he has integrity,” he said. “With the man there now, there

will be a lot of transparency. You know he doesn’t take nonsense and he

is a nice man. I know he will not disappoint Nigerians.”

The National

Council of States, on Tuesday approved the appointment of Mr. Jega,

vice chancellor of Bayero University, Kano as the new chairman of

Nigeria’s electoral commission. Also approved by the council are ten

other electoral commissioners and 18 resident electoral commissioners.

Commenting on his political future, Mr. Akala, expressed his

confidence ahead of the 2011 general polls. “I have been doing that for

the past how many years now,” he said. “For when you have been on a

particular job for a very long time, the more time you spend, the more

you master the game.”

The National
Council of States yesterday approved the nomination of Attahiru Jega as
the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission by
President Goodluck Jonathan.

The ratification
came during the council’s first meeting under Mr Jonathan’s
administration. An influential advisory body, members of the council
include state governors, all former heads of state, former chief
justices of the federation and the current one, the attorney-general
and minister of justice, Senate President and Speaker of the House of
Representatives.

Yesterday’s meeting
had, for the first time in a very long while, all former living
Nigerian heads of state in attendance, including Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun
Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari, Ibrahim Babangida, Ernest Shonekan,
Abdulsalami Abubakar, and Muhammadu Buhari who consistently shunned the
council’s meetings during the administration of Mr Obasanjo.

The full attendance by the former leaders signifies their confidence in the leadership of Mr. Jonathan, a presidency aide said.

The council also
approved 10 national commissioners and 18 resident commissioners for
the electoral commission, alongside Mr. Jega who was a former national
president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, and the Vice
Chancellor of the Bayero University, Kano. All the names will be
forwarded to the National Assembly for confirmation.

Unanimous approval

The Edo State
governor, Adams Oshiomhole, who made the announcement after the closed
door meeting which lasted for about six hours, said,

“The council
considered the recommendation of Professor Atahiru Jega for appointment
as chairman of INEC and the council unanimously approved of it,” he
said, flanked by the governors of Niger, Jigawa, and Enugu States.

“We believe the
president demonstrated courage and statesmanship in appointing someone
who is not known to have any partisan political affiliation and a
Nigerian that has distinguished himself in his present and past
callings,” he said, adding, “The council also commended the president
for the quality of people nominated as national electoral
commissioners, about 10 of them as well as 18 other resident electoral
commissioners.

“The good thing
about it is that council was unanimous about these appointments because
the people concerned were considered to be men and women of integrity.
The fact is that we all accept that the president has exercised his
power quite judiciously in appointing someone that most Nigerians will
respect and appreciate, and it will be a major push on the electoral
reform line. The president also agreed that any of the existing
electoral commissioners whose tenure has not expired, but who might
have been found wanting of any particular wrong; where proven, will be
promptly removed and replaced.

“I think with council decision today, the recommendation will now go to the Senate for scrutiny and approval.”

Although the
council is essentially an advisory body, it is usually consulted on
significant national issues. Its meeting yesterday was essentially to
endorse the appointment of a new chairman for the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC).