By Henry Umoru
ABUJA — THE Senate, yesterday, vowed that President Goodluck Jonathan’s delay in transmitting the Justice Alfa Belgore’s report to the National Assembly for consideration will not stop the present amendment of the 1999 Constitution.

Answering questions from journalists in Abuja, Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, who disclosed that the Senate was yet to receive the Belgore’s report, however, took a swipe at the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, warning the body not to cause crisis in Nigeria over the review of the constitution.

The Senate Leader who noted that there was no going back on the Constitution review process by the National Assembly, expressed shock, surprise and bewilderment at the sudden U-turn  of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA on National Assembly’s proposal to amend the 1999 Constitution, just as he described comments attributed to NBA National President, Okey Wali, SAN as a volte face and an attempt to “approbate and reprobate” at the same time.

Senator Ndoma-Egba particularly frowned at comments by the NBA, Okey Wali, SAN who had asked why the National Assembly was in a hurry to amend the Constitution when President Goodluck Jonathan was yet to forward the Justice Alfa Belgore Report on Constitution Amendment to it for consideration.

Ndoma-Egba said: “I am a bit surprised because of the current exercise. We have two memoranda from the NBA and the NBA was very active in the exercise of the 6th National Assembly. In fact, if I recall, we had a retreat in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on Constitution amendment and after that, they submitted a memorandum of their views to the National Assembly.

“For this exercise that they have reservations about, they have participated actively. The law would say that you are approbating and reprobating at the same time. They have participated actively (in the process).

“From 1999, the NBA has always responded positively to Constitution amendment by setting up its own committee for Constitution amendment. They have always responded to the process. So, the NBA has responded to the process by submitting memoranda; including this one.

Yet to receive Belgore’s report

On the Belgore’s Report, the Senate leader: “We don’t have the Justice Belgore Report yet and there’s no law that says we must await that report. The Justice Belgore Report is an eExecutive initiative; it’s an input into the process, just like in the last exercise when we had the Justice Mohammed Uwais Report.

“It was one of several reports. It was a very important input but it was an input. But with or without the Justice Belgore’s Report, we are not obliged to stop legislative work because we are expecting a report that the person who commissioned it has not found it necessary to remit it to us.

‘’The constitution creating the National Assembly made up of two chambers and for purposes of passing bills, we operate as two houses and we meet at conferences to harmonise positions. So the constitution contemplates that both chambers will work separately and independently until we get to that point where we need to conference or harmonise.

‘’In times past, we had tried to work together for reasons of time and expense, but we discovered that it is not as easy as we thought because the contemplation of the constitution is that both houses should work independently.

‘’The budget of the National Assembly in 2012 is N150bn which is just 3 percent of the national budget of N4.8 trillion. N150bn is a fraction of the over N2trn being investigated in the fuel subsidy regime and N2trn being investigated in the pension fund management.

‘’The presidential system of government is designed for conflict that would guarantee checks and balances. So it is totally immaterial that the president is from the same party as members of the National Assembly.

‘’After many years of military rule, we are yet to shed ourselves ourselves of the military of yes sir and that the more you abuse your opponents, the more loyal you appear to be. This is a different environment and they ought to know that and do a lot more reading to understand the system. Abusing an arm of government is not a sign of loyalty. In fact as far as I am concerned, it is a mark of disloyalty.”