N/Assembly amended Appropriation may shutdown govt business, says Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has alleged that National Assembly’s resolution on Appropriation may inflict financial hardship and shutdown government business if he assents to the harmonised report of the parliament on the 1999 constitution (fourth alteration).

Jonathan in a 6-page letter dated April 13, 2015, addressed to Senate President David Mark and Aminu Tambuwal, speaker of the House of Representatives, queried the resolution of the National Assembly as contained in the fourth alteration of the Constitution Act, 2015.

He noted that the National Assembly’s resolution on the alteration of section 21(82) which “seeks to limit the period when expenditure can be authorised in default of appropriation from the six months provided in the constitution to three months” did not take into cognisance unforeseen reasons and other exigencies in the polity.

On alteration of section 4(9) which deals on ‘assent of the president,’ he argued that the stance of the National Assembly “altogether constitutes flagrant violations of the doctrine of separation of powers enshrined in the 1999 constitution and an unjustified whittling down of the executive powers of the federation vested in the president by virtue of section 5(1) of the 1999 constitution.”

On the newly inserted section 12(45a-45b) on ‘right to free education’ as proposed by the National Assembly he said it “is too open ended and should have been restricted to government schools.” He further noted that “the right to free basic education under this provision if taken to its logical conclusion will invariably apply to private schools, which could not have been the intendment of the legislature.”

The president in the letter also withheld assent to section 23(84a-84f) on the appointment of the Accountant General of the Federation; separation of the office of the Attorney General of the Federation from Minister of Justice and the Attorney General from the Commissioner for Justice in respective states of the federation.

“In view of the foregoing and the absence of credible evidence that the Act satisfied the strict requirements of section 9(3) of the 1999 constitution, it will be unconstitutional for me to assent to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Fourth Alteration) Act, 2015. I, therefore, withhold my assent and accordingly remit it to the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Jonathan said.

Meanwhile, the Senate is to study President Goodluck Jonathan’s rejection of the amended 1999 constitution. To this end, the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution has commenced a two-day retreat to consider the correspondence from President Jonathan that vetoed the amendment.

The committee chaired by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu commenced the retreat on Wednesday and will end today Thursday after which it would make its recommendations to the red chamber.