By Emman Ovuakporie

ABUJA — PRESIDENT of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Mr. Abdulwaheed Omar, yesterday, said the processes of removing the President and his vice as contained in the Nigerian constitution were too ambiguous, fettered, time-consuming and not intended to achieve the result of effecting change.

This came as the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), represented by Col. Bello Fadile, pleaded with the Federal Government to include his office among front line charge agencies in the country.

In a position paper presented  at a public hearing organised by the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Constitution Review, Omar said the realization of the impractical ability of the process partly explained the levity with which resolutions of the National Assembly were treated by the executive.

The NLC president, who was represented by Mr. Benson Upah,  said in  an environment where votes counted for little, the National Assembly remained the only viable and acceptable source of changing an unpopular President.

He said: “Given the overwhelming resources and advantages at the disposal of the Executive to the exclusion of other arms of government, the legislature should be strengthened  and empowered to perform its constitutional duties judiciously.”

“Congress is of the view that one of the ways of exercising this right is to  keep straight and simple the process of impeaching a grossly-erring president or vice president.

“Utmost sense of responsibility and decorum comes with the reviewed powers of the National Assembly in order to minimise or eliminate the temptation or tendency for abuse.

“Congress holds the view that the time frame and process for investigation should be pruned down to achieve effect and relevancy but without sacrificing the quality of the process,” Omar said.

He also supported alterations to some provisions of the constitution contained in Sections 241, 285 and 158.

However, a representative of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Ken Amadi, opposed the proposal that seeks to alter Section 241, saying there existed a provision for right of appeal in Section 243 (3) of the Alteration Act.

Amadi, who is a judge in the industrial court, argued that the amendment to the section would be a duplication of efforts.

According to him, all that needs to be done is for the National Assembly to prescribe an Act to that effect.

Fadile, who is a director of special duties in the NSA, said despite the urgent and important nature of its job, the agency is poorly funded and receives its budgetary allocation late.

“As I speak, the Office of the National Security Adviser has not received its third quarter allocation.  Last year, over N7billion was not paid to the agency to do its functions,” he said.

He added that having won a seat in the United Nations Security Council, Nigeria will now be put to test on the way it reacted to  emergency..

The director also said the nation had been faced with challenges in the past, including an incident where President Goodluck Jonathan could have been stuck in the air in France because Nigeria owed the country some fees that had not been offset.

“The presidential fleet could have been stuck mid air because  we were owing and we’re taken to court in France, we had to pay close to €3m,” he said to the committee.

Declaring the public hearing open earlier, chairman of the ad-hoc committee and deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha assured of the committee’s resolve to carry all Nigerians along in the process hence the need for the public hearing.

He said voting could not be conducted on some clauses contained in the committee’s report because they wanted to give every stakeholder to opportunity to make contributions.

The DS explained further that the reports obtained from the various Federal Constituencies were carefully collated and analysed by the Committee.

“Thereafter, distinct issues were formulated from the collated results into a Bill which was then presented to the House by the Committee.

“This led to the landmark voting on amendment of the Constitution which took place on July 25, 2013.

“The outcome of that exercise, especially the clear positive votes on such issues as financial and administrative autonomy for local government councils, making certain aspects of the fundamental objectives and directive principles of State policy in Chapter II of the Constitution justiciable, citizenship/indigenship question, et cetera has further received universal acclaim.

“And it is the most far reaching proposals ever made for amendment of the 1999 Constitution.

“The Committee has further analysed the voting pattern and juxtaposed the House version with the position of our Senate counterpart. Preparations are being made for the empanelling of a harmonization Committee with the Senate in order that the two Chambers will come to an agreement on a single document that will be forwarded to the Houses of Assembly of the States.

“But before that is done, there remained a number of Bills which were referred to the Committee shortly before the voting took place.  Some others were referred after the voting had taken place.