Nigerians expect serious constitution review, says Akpatason

Peter Akpatason, who represents Akoko-Edo Constituency, was the Chairman, Southwest Zone of the House of Representatives Public Hearing on the Review of the 1999 Constitution held in Akure, the capital of Ondo State. In this interview with reporters in Akure, Akpatason says Nigerians expect serious changes in the constitution. Osagie Otabor was there. Excerpts:

Some people are skeptical about the constitution review, with the fear that it may be an exercise in futility. What is your reaction?

I won’t blame Nigerians as to being skeptical about the possible outcome of the constitution review in the country because over the years, we have done this repeatedly and we had advanced to get to incremental changes that have not actually met the expectations of the people. We must be honest about it. So, Nigerians expect very serious changes. Changes that will impact on every aspect of the society but I’m not sure that is what has happened in the time past.

We have our challenges too. The composition of the different houses of the National Assembly is a fact to whatever that we are doing. And apart from that, the content of the constitution itself and the procedure for a review is also a factor that we need to look at. I recall that in the sixth Assembly, I came in, in the seventh Assembly. In the sixth Assembly, thw National Assembly agreed to the complete independence of the State Houses of Assembly.

The next phase was for the State Houses of Assembly to give endorsement and their governors asked them not to do so. And they actually rejected the proposal by the National Assembly. That was a failure that Nigerian people were not happy. That wasn’t the fault of the National Assembly but it was a failure because at the end of the day, even if National Assembly succeeded in passing it, provided that it didn’t scale through the other levels, it simply means that it was a failure.

There are a lot of other issues to that. For instance, if you talk about derivation as a policy, it is easy to get people from the south to support the policy of derivation but it wasn’t so easy in the past for other parts of the country to see that compelling need for increasing derivation and others like that. So, to push that through, you need to do a lot of lobbying and so on and so forth. So, until we have a situation or an issue that the entire country seems to be comfortable with, we will definitely would have that challenge of getting colleagues across board to support most the proposals made. And where two-third majority is required, for instance, if one full region or two regions are not in support of it, definitely you can be sure that it won’t scale through. That’s being the challenge in the past.

However, the situation we have in the country just now is one that is capable of compelling people to think across the borders of those sentiments and begin to look at issues from more nationalistic perspective. I believe because of that, it is going to be easier for us to get things done much better than in the past. The country is in dire state. And I want to believe that even those who thought that they were in safe haven, untouchable in any form seemed to have realised that if the situation in the country deteriorates beyond what it is now and if no remedy is found soon, there might be no safe place for anybody.

With that fear and concern in the minds of many people, I’m sure that people will be more realistic and be more practical about the situation than we have had in the past. I’m believing that, with that it will be much easier for us to come up with far reaching reviews than previous exercises.

There has been calls for a unicameral legislature and reduction in the number of legislators.

It is time we start taking Nigeria issues more seriously than ever before. The issue of cost cutting is very very important at this point in time. However, we don’t do it at the expense of quality and effective representation. I’m not opposed to Unicameral legislature. I actually don’t see the reason why we have two committees to oversee a ministry at the same time, it’s duplication. The argument that it is more effective, for me, it is a very weak argument, because a single committee that is serious and well composed can supervise a ministry more than multiple committees that are properly composed. I’m not opposed to Unicameral legislature in Nigeria, I think we can do it and it will save some cost. But cost is not always the reason for doing things. If saving cost is what we can achieve at the detriment of effective representation then we need to look at it very objectively. As regard reducing the number of legislators. If you say 360 is much and you want to reduce it, you have to change the whole lot to achieve that. But I wonder if that is going to add any value. So, we should rather focus on how we can get the legislature to be more effective by getting the right people by reviewing our electoral processes, particularly our party politics and election. The election that brings people onboard both at the executive and legislature at present is not as credible as it ought to be. It is very susceptible to manipulations for so many reasons. The cost of election itself is monumental, a lot of people cannot afford it.

We also have to look at the role of the electoral umpire and the Judiciary because all of them add to the cost. If we are able to address all those, we would have a more credible system. If it brings in few people, you’ll be sure that you are bringing in the right people.

But, in some quarters, there is the call for the total overhauling of the constitution rather than its review. Many believed that the 1999 constitution was foisted on nigerians.

The parliament, no sure is in a position of totally conveying the process of bringing about complete constitution. We have the power to review existing constitution. I’m not sure, that clause gives us the power to convey a conference that can debate a completely new constitution. It is a thing that the nation has to do through national resolution like the Jonathan’s government did to setup a conference that would debate a fresh way forward.

But, what we can do at the level of parliament is to review what is existing and bring about changes to it.

Why is it difficult for the National Assembly to work on the 2014 confab report and get a new constitution for the country?

I’m not sure the issue is difficult for National Assembly or not. The 2014 CONFAB was an executive document. It belongs to the executive. It’s their responsibility to dust it and look at it.

However, in the course of this review, I think it is also possible for us to look at what is contained in that document and see how much we can pick from there. In terms of implementing it, I’m not sure it’s the National Assembly that can push for that but we can borrow leaf from what is contained in it.

You know what happens in this country, that document came towards the tail end of that regime. In the end it was not implementable by that same regime. And often time, when things like that happens in Nigeria we don’t find anybody coming back to it, which is a very unfortunate practice. I think I support the idea of extracting as much as we can get from that document.

As an apc leader, what is wrong with the committee setup by your party on restructuring headed by El-rufai?

I don’t think there is anything wrong with that committee. That is a political party committee. APC is not Nigeria as a whole. APC is a party. A ruling party cannot impose options on the whole country. A ruling party can make contribution and that was APC did. It came up with position which they have dustributed to various interest groups across the country. That is the position of APC. That position is not necessarily the position of non APC people and that is the majority in the country because there is no party whose membership is up to 40 percent of the population of the country. At best, what APC did can be a contribution to a general process. It cannot be taken for a new constitution. Now, as we are doing our review, we are looking at that document just as we are looking at previous documents and we will extract whatever we can extract from those documents.

Are you saying Nigerians should be optimistic on the outcome of the exercise?

I’m very optimistic that this is going to be one of the best constitution review exercises we have ever had.

It is because you are a participant?

No, not because I’m a participant. This is not the first time I’m participating. This is the third time. The circumstances are just compelling just now. It is only the deaf and dumb or the blind that would not see and cannot feel what is happening in the country today.

I can assure you that we don’t sit comfortablely in our positions in the office any more. Nobody is comfortable in that National Assembly. We are all sitting on the edges believing that anything can happen to anybody including those of us who are there, particularly those of us who are in government today. So, I’m not sure we need Jesus or Muhammed to come down and solve our problem for us or to remind us that we need to do our best at the moment. We have compelling circumstances, pains and agonies that are compelling enough to force anybody to do the right thing more than ever before.

Do you think apc will retain power beyond 2023?

I’m pained about what is happening in the country right now not about any sentiment. What I’m concerned about is how Nigeria will come out of this unfortunate situation in which we have found ourselves. Party or no party at this point in time, I think we should be thinking as Nigerians. When the bubble bursts, it will not know party and it will not know ethnicity. For that reason, we should put all those sentiments aside and think of how to savage the situation.

Don’t you think the constitution review is coming rather too late, considering the agitations for self-determination in some parts of the country?

The process actually started before we got to this phase. So, it is not coming too late. It is never too late. It is not a reaction this situation. It is a normal process that had its own cost before the security and socio-economic situation is where it is just now. It is rather more important now than ever before.

But, if you ask that due to the believe of some people that constitution review exercise cannot solve the problem whether we should therefore discontinue or not, my answer will be no, we shouldn’t discontinue. Let us do the best we can do to make our own contribution. If that saves, good for Nigerians but if in the end it’s not able, we would have at least satisfy our own conscience that yes, we didn’t go into slumber when the situation got to this level.

Is there any possibility that the exercise will be concluded before the 2023 elections?

I thought you’re going to say two to three months from now. How can delay it more than this year. I don’t think that is realistic. I don’t think so.

With the suspension of the exercise in the Southeast, are you not afraid that governance is collapsing in a particular zone of the country?

To be honest, I am one person that is sad about Nigeria situation just now. It’s frustrating I must tell you. It’s very frustrating, particularly for those of us who are being out there making very strong case for good governance and people who believe that Nigeria must continue to move on. But today, we see Nigeria crawling, retrogressing and sliding actually into a very dark situation. A situation we never dreamt of in our lives. A situation where you are not sure of your next 24 hours. Nigeria is not safe for anybody just now, let’s not kid ourselves. It unfortunate, I must tell you.

If you’ve the opportunity of sitting with the president, what will you tell him on the way out of this quagmire we are in?

Unfortunately, I’m not sure that it is easy for me to have the opportunity to sit with the president. What I would have told the president if I have the opportunity is what we have been saying on the floor of the house and in committee meetings as well as the exercises like the one that is going on.

Don’t you think that the process would be delayed, considering that the exercise is not taking place in the Southeast?

It might not. The exercise is just one out of the several steps we have taken. Going out there to listen to the people is an aspect. But before then, opportunity has been given to make input. I can assure you that more than 75 to 80 per cent of those who wants to make contribution had already sent their inputs and we will continue to use every means possible to get to the grassroots to get more information in as much as we can.