Confab: Withdraw draft constitution, Northern delegates tell Kutigi

Northern delegates have further expressed their
anger over the national conference’s proposed
‘draft constitution’ by petitioning the Chairman of
the conference, Justice Idris Kutigi.
They have asked him to withdraw the document
from circulation, stressing that its content should
not be debated at the plenary.
This was contained in an open letter the northern
delegates sent to Kutigi in Abuja on Wednesday.
Titled, ‘New constitution, referendum and adoption
of conference report:Issues of serious concern’,
the letter was signed by the Chairman and Co-
Chairman of the Northern Delegates Forum, Alhaji
Ibrahim Coomasie and Gen. Jeremiah Useni (retd.),
respectively.
The letter read in part, “We call upon the
leadership of the Conference to discountenance
and withdraw the Draft Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, 2014 and the accompanying
Bills, which have been circulated.
“We urge the Conference leadership to table the
Draft Conference Report which contains only the
resolutions openly and officially sanctioned and
adopted by delegates for validation and adoption as
provided for under the National Conference
Procedure Rules, 2014 and as envisaged in the
Work Plan adopted.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we shall not be a
party to the adoption of the report or any part
thereof by voice vote. We urge the leadership of
the Conference to be strictly guided by the
Conference Procedure Rules, 2014.”
They said they were shocked when the Secretary
of the Conference, Dr. Valerie Azinge, distributed
some documents including one entitled ‘Report of
the National Conference, 2014 DRAFT
CONSTITUTION’, which they said was also
accompanied by draft bills to promulgate into law
the ‘CONSTITUTION OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC
OF NIGERIA, 2014′.
The delegates insisted in the letter that none of
them was party or privy to any decision and did
not participate in any processes or proceedings to
draft a constitution or bill.
“Quite on the contrary,” the delegates added in the
letter, that they had expressed their objections to
any such project under any guise.
They said, “Moreover and to the best of our
knowledge, we are unaware that the Conference
has, whether at plenary or committee stages of its
work, taken a decision to draw up a draft
constitution, authorised or tasked any of its
Committees, delegates or the Conference
Secretariat to do so.”
They, therefore, described the origin of the
documents as dubious and questionable.
The aggrieved delegates wondered why the
‘suspicious document’ contained what they
described as some extraneous issues.
Such issues, according to them, were various
provisions pertaining to issues of State
Constitution, boundary adjustment, referendum to
adopt Constitution, funding for Local Government
Areas, and deletion of Land Use Act and the
abrogation of all existing laws, which were
contained in the contentious draft.
During plenary on Wednesday, which lasted for
only about 14 minutes, Kutigi announced plans for
accelerated handling of final approval of the draft
resolutions.
The Chairman, flanked by his deputy, Prof. Bolaji
Akinyemi, the Conference Secretary, Dr. Valerie-
Jenete Azinge and the other three principal
officers, welcomed the delegates back to the
Conference.
He apologised for the postponement of resumption
from August 4 to August 11, explaining that it was
due to the enormous work that needed to be done
to ensure the completion of the draft resolutions.
Kutigi reassured delegates of the inviolability of the
draft resolutions, adding: “If there are any errors,
they are human errors and not an attempt by the
leadership to any play game.”
He further stated that the draft reports of the
Conference prepared by the Secretariat were done
“to the best of our ability and with all honesty and
diligence.”
However, he said as humans, there could be
noticeable errors that would be corrected if brought
to the attention of the secretariat.
“Any mistake is due to human error and can be
corrected,” he said.
The chairman said in line with the resolution of the
Conference, the reports were prepared to cover
constitutional issues based on amendments agreed
upon by the delegates; policy issues meant for
implementation by the President; and legislative
issues earmarked for enactment into laws by the
National Assembly.
Justice Kutigi explained that the copy labeled “draft
constitution” contained the various alterations and
amendments to the 1999 Constitution “proposed by
you.”
After the brief address, some delegates clapped for
him.
Justice Kutigi immediately went ahead to spell out
the procedure to be adopted by the Conference for
consideration and approval of the different reports.
Before adjourning the session, Justice Kutigi
announced the presence of a new delegate, Chief
Supo Shonibare, who replaced Sir. Olaniwun Ajayi
from the South West; and the death of Professor
Mohammed Nur.
He jokingly referred to Shonibare as the ‘real
addendum’ to the conference and asked Chief Mike
Ozhekome (SAN) who has been referring to
himself as a Federal Government addendum
delegate, to drop the appellation for Shonibare.