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| Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila |
Barely one week after the House said such a conference was unnecessary, the Action Congress of Nigeria caucus on Thursday dissociated itself from the position of the House.
The caucus said Nigeria was ripe for a conference where Nigerians would agree on the way forward for the country.
The Minority Leader of the House, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila (ACN, Lagos), led members of the group to a news conference where they disowned the House.
On Thursday last week, the Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, said in Abuja that the leadership of the House considered the SNC unnecessary.
According to Gbajabiamila, the House neither discussed nor took a position on SNC either in plenary or in executive session to warrant Mohammed’s comments.
He noted that there were two issues to be decided by Nigerians — one was whether they wanted a new constitution written.
He said the second was whether they wanted a review of the 1999 Constitution.
The ACN leader argued that the National Assembly would be useful only when Nigerians preferred a new constitution.
Gbajabiamila said, “If they want a new constitution, the National Assembly is not empowered to give them a new constitution.
“That is why as a caucus, we insist that Nigerians should first meet and decide what they want.”
On the position that the entire House opposed the SNC, he said, “At no time did the House sit together as a body either in plenary or at an executive session to take a position on this very important national conversation.
“It is therefore important that as a caucus and a party, we state our position clearly.
“We wish to make a clear distinction between writing a new constitution and amending the existing constitution.
“If the national consensus is to write and produce a new constitution, then such will be outside the purview and mandate of the National Assembly.
However, Mohammed said the caucus was entitled to its opinion, insisting that the House was against the SNC.
The House spokesman explained that the SNC “threatened the very existence of the National Assembly as a democratic institution of governance”.
He added, “We are saying that the National Assembly can address the grievances of the proponents of the SNC.
“The ACN caucus is entitled to its opinion, but you will agree that their number is not the same as the number of the whole House.
“In any case, it is the majority that will always carry the day.”
On whether the position of the House was debated on the floor, Mohammed said “it is not every issue that must be debated by the House before a position is made public”.
The ACN caucus also opposed the fresh $7.9bn loan sought by President Goodluck Jonathan to fund pipeline projects.
It observed that the loan was “never part of the 2012-2015 medium term expenditure framework”, besides the fact that it would raise Nigeria’s foreign debt profile to $14bn from the present $6bn.
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