Speaking as guest speaker at the 2015 Law Faculty Public Lecture of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Ekweremadu disclosed that following the refusal of the National Assembly to accede to Adoke’s request to expunge the amendment seeking to separate the office of the Minister of Justice from that of the Attorney General, the former Attorney General misled the immediate past president, Goodluck Jonathan into withdrawing his assent after he had initially assented to it.
Ekweremadu who spoke on the topic: “The politics of constitution review in multi-ethnic societies” blamed embedded ethno-sectional interests and considerations as major stumbling blocks to Nigeria’s quest for a more acceptable constitution. He regretted that vital amendments, which should have helped to deepen Nigeria’s democratic experience, strengthen equity and justice and escalate national development had perished at the altars of mutual suspicion and narrow elite’s interests masqueraded as ethno-sectional interests.
Ekweremadu who was the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution regretted that whatever scuttled the last constitution amendment process did so based purely on narrow ethno-sectional interest, not on national interest.
According to him: “It was very reliably gathered that former President Goodluck Jonathan indeed appended his signature to the Alteration Bill presented to him and had, thus assented to the Bill. However, the former Attorney General of the Federation who was against assenting to the Bill subsequently persuaded him to veto it. The Presidency wrote to the National Assembly stating clearly that it was returning the Bill, but the Bill did not accompany the letter. This prompted the National Assembly to demand the return of the original Bill sent to the President for assent in light of his alleged veto, but the Presidency refused this request, ostensibly because there would have been no way of covering up the fact of the signing of the original Alteration bill by the President.”
Senator Ekweremadu also said it was time the nation embraced the reality that the South-east deserves an additional state for the sake of equity in the distribution of resources and opportunities.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Eberendu Ahaneku said the university encourages public lectures of such type organized by the Faculty of Law with a view to broadening and deepening knowledge as well as interrogating topical national issues. He said that forging a constitution for multi-ethnic countries like Nigeria is an intensely emotive matter posing daunting challenges.
The Sun.
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