In this exclusive interview with KEHINDE OSASONA, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mohammed Ndarani Mohammed, SAN speaks on the need for constitution review, part-time legislature, immunity clause, and the justice system among others.
Excerpts…
Learned Silk sir, Nigerians appear divided over part-time legislature which is being advocated in some quarters, from the point of view of law and constitution, is it lawful or practicable?
Yes, it is practicable. Part-time legislation is what is obtained in many developed nations of the world and it will help our fledgling democracy by reducing corruption, saving the overall cost of running the law-making outfit and the general cost of governance in this country. Part-time legislation obtains in Ghana apart from its being the in thing in developed economies.
It should be appreciated that the National Assembly are working part-time and being paid full-time. If you take a look at any of the chambers of the National Assembly, you will observe that both houses are only full on the day of the inauguration of both houses. Where do the rest go during the deliberations of the remaining part of the year? Also, how many days do they sit in a year? They officially sit for 130 days in a year, so why should they be branded full-time legislators? The pace has already been set by the precedence they have set by the attitude, body language and expressed behaviour to law-making business. This calls for a collapse of both houses so we have only one house wherein, the members would be on part-time engagement. It is because they are on what is termed, “full time” that they allocate huge sums of money for themselves for their annual vacations, and recesses which is what they enjoy all the year round.
The making of national legislative business, with lower and reduced salaries and allowances, as a part-time assignment and unicameral with reduced membership from the present over-bloated national assembly and with reduced legislative aides will dissuade flamboyant, corrupt, greedy and selfish representation.
Are you not worried that issues of budget padding often crop up in NASS too?
Budget padding has become a recurrent feature of our legislative business.
This is one of the ways that money meant for development ends in the hands of the legislators and this is made possible because of their claim to be working full time. Our hallowed chambers of the National Assembly have become a gathering of gold-diggers masquerading as politicians, gathered as it were, of hyenas around a huge kill, courtesy of the fat packages and numerous allowances and other incentives they allocate to themselves.
In 2016 and 2018, President Buhari according to the ICIJR by Kingsley Obiejesi, writing for the International Centre for Investigative Journalism, published on 22nd June 2018 wrote that Abdulmumim Jibrin, a Member of the House of Representatives who blew the whistle had complained that the Speaker House of Representatives and other principal officers padded the 2016 and 2018 budgets. In the report, President Buhari accused members of the National Assembly of cutting down allocations for some key infrastructure projects, while inserting “6,403 projects of their own, amounting to N578 billion” into the budget. Buhari was also quoted as saying, “Many of the projects cut are critical and may be difficult, if not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation.
Some of the new projects inserted by the national assembly have not been properly conceptualized, designed and cost and will therefore be difficult to execute. This menace is like a hydra-headed monster that could not be said to have died, or been kept out of the making of the 2023 and 2024 budgets.
There had been several reports that the 2024 budget appropriation was largely padded by the Senate. Although the Senate had denied padding the 2024 budget estimate, nevertheless, as the saying goes, for every rumour, there may lurk some elements of truth.
Sir, you once took a position on constitutional amendment, has it changed?
No, I restate it that the Nigerian Constitution should be amended to provide for a unicameral Senate and House of Representatives, (we already have a unicameral legislature at the state and Local Government levels).
Finally, I subscribe to the opinion of Senator Orji Uzor Kalu that the Senate and Member House of Representatives should now fast-track the enactment of a better-placed Constitution, or at best, they should immediately do a quick constitutional amendment so we can go and be part-time sitting Senate and part-time sitting House of Representatives and other 36 States Houses of Assembly in Nigeria.
What is your position on immunity for the Governors, and others?
Section 308, for me, should be removed from the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, (as amended).
Corruption, which has virtually eaten deep into the fabric of the country’s democratic governance, is traceable to the immunity clause. Having moved around the world and conducted research, I discovered that there was nowhere where governors and their deputies are immune from prosecution.
So, if the fight against corruption must be won, then the National Assembly should expunge the section from the constitution. NASS should look at Section 308, nullify it, water it down, strike it down or remove it to a level where we can have accountability and responsibility from governors.
The Immunity Clause does not take cognizance of equality before the law, nor does it take cognizance of neither fair hearing nor equal access to the court. If all the governors of the 36 States of the Federation are immune, how can you promote equality before the law?
Contrary to arguments in some quarters that removal of the immunity clause will expose governors to litigations and distractions, I believe if you are prudent, accountable and not corrupt as a governor, you don’t have to be afraid.”
That said immunity for Presidents and their Vice is understandable.
Where is the place of law reforms in all of these, if I may ask learned SAN?
The truth is some of our laws are outdated. This is where The Nigerian Law Reform Commission (NLRC) comes in. Their task is to among other things demonstrate proactiveness by identifying and dealing with obsolete laws in the country.
NLRC should be made more active and properly funded to deliver on its mandate by constantly researching, reviewing, and reforming the laws of the land. Over the years, the major problems bedevilling the country’s economic progress and development have been the ubiquitous and all-pervasive presence of obsolete sections and aspects of our 1999 Constitution.
A clear example is the non-enforcement of Nigerian Educational banks, maritime, witchcraft, bigamy, Finance, and Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority Act among others which had eroded and retarded the administration of justice owing to their weird and odd prescriptions, innocuous fines imposed and strange provisions when compared with the present day. Worst still, the laws do not have any practical relevance to the realities of today’s Nigeria, but regrettably, they are still being relied upon as binding laws.
Another example is Sections 210 (Witchcraft) and 370 (Bigamy) of the Criminal Code Acts and Criminal Code Laws of States. Lagos State has decriminalized bigamy, which means that it is no longer a crime in Lagos State to marry another woman/man, where there is an already existing valid statutory marriage.
Although NLRC was established in 1979 to reform in consonance with changes within the machinery of administration of justice, little or no visible change has come to our corpus of laws, thus confirming that they have not lived up to expectations.
Look at the Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority Act, 1996 and the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007, which give large tax holidays and moderated benefits to foreign investors that for me could make Nigeria perpetually underdeveloped.
What about the Nigerian Educational Bank Act, Cap N102, LFN, 2004; Casino Taxation Act, Cap C3, LFN, 2004; Nigerian Railway Corporation Act, Cap N131, LFN, 2004, the Finance (Control and Management) Act, 1958; The Coins Act, Cap C16, LFN 2004 (even when the use of coins is no longer in vogue today); Evidence Act, 2011; The Entertainment Tax Act, Cap 498, LFN 2004; Sale of Goods Act, Hire Purchase Act, and the Nigerian Penal Code Act’’, and a couple of others?
Do you agree that the justice system is faulty too?
I think Judges and other stakeholders in the sector should continue to infuse confidence into the justice system because the hallmark of justice is to guarantee the possibility that the weak could win against the strong.
Unless there is confidence in the justice system, both in its rules and the officials that apply them, anxiety and bitterness will continue across the nation. The law itself is the mechanism for reducing the level of grievance in a society, hence “Justice delayed is often seen as justice denied.
However, I am optimistic that with the appointment of new Justices to the Supreme Court making a total of 21 justices by President Bola Tinubu, there will be improvement in efficient justice delivery.
On a parting note, as an Abuja resident, do you have any words for the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike and Senator Ireti Kingibe over their face-off?
All stakeholders both elective and appointive must work together and abide by the guiding rules of their different offices to strengthen one another as one big family’’.
Nigeria can’t achieve much success without each other’s support. So, the minister and the Senator should sheath their swords, put their differences aside and work for the common good of the people of the FCT.
Wike was appointed to serve the people of the FCT, and Kingibe was elected to serve the people of the FCT.
Having said that, I think Wike stands out as a significant asset in the hands of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as he has demonstrated exceptional competence and dedication in his role as FCT Minister. Each day, residents of Abuja witness the tangible impact of his initiatives, with new projects emerging consistently.
With a keen eye for progress and development, Wike’s notable track record of accomplishments within the Federal Capital Territory thus far has exceeded expectations, validating President Tinubu’s decision to appoint him to this crucial position.