Tag: David Mark
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David Mark’s theory on constitution without citizenry
What Nigeria’s lawmakers elected on the platform of the 1999 Constitution need to do is to listen to citizens whose votes brought them to the national assembly.
David Mark’s recent pontification on the need to have a constitution that shuns people’s wishes is not new to politics in our country. The military ruled Nigeria for decades without a constitution. Even the 1999 Constitution that David Mark holds to heart as sacred enough not to need any referendum that involves those for whom the constitution is ostensibly written was crafted by former military colleagues of the Senate President. It is not Senator Mark’s militaristic notion of constitutions that should surprise citizens. It is his conviction as an elected senator by citizens that creating a constitutional process cannot be determined by citizens once there is a ‘constitution’ on ground, regardless of how citizens feel about the constitution.
The fear of citizens inherent in Senator Mark’s effort to avoid citizens in efforts to create acceptable constitutions can be likened to what Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of the United Arab Emirates, one of the youngest federations in the world, said about his vision for Dubai’s development: The real crisis is rather one of leadership, management and perennial egotism. This is the kind of crisis that is bound to happen when lust for power prevails over granting people the love and care they deserve, and when the interests and destiny of one individual (or a small group of individuals as in the case of Nigeria’s National Assembly) become more important than those of a whole nation.
Writing further about the transformation of Dubai within a federation, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said: Our distinctive development experience in the UAE is a good example of what can be done when God blesses a country with an unselfish leadership that strives for the good of its people and not its own. Good leadership puts the interests of the community as a whole before those of any specific group….There is a world of difference between a leadership that is based on love and respect, and one that is based on fear.
I am quoting Rashid Al Maktoum extensively to underscore that Senator Mark’s view that the process of making a constitution, captured in provisions of a constitution that citizens believe is an imposition on the country by military dictators, smacks not of respect for Nigerians but of fear of Nigerians by those that happen to occupy positions of legislative leadership. Insisting, as the Senate President has done, that the legalistic aspect of the 1999 Constitution is the matter at stake is to miss the point of the essence of constitutions. Constitutions become embodiment of laws that must be respected and obeyed only after they have been created by a process that has the blessing and consent of the people whose political behaviours constitutions are created to regulate.
What Nigeria’s lawmakers elected on the platform of the 1999 Constitution need to do is to listen to citizens whose votes brought them to the national assembly. Millions of citizens are saying that the 1999 Constitution was not created with their consent and that the desire of citizens to participate in the 1999 election to move the country from military autocracy to electoral democracy does not and should not constitute a sufficient condition for the post-military political leadership to assume that citizens accept that the only thing to do with the 1999 Constitution is to ‘panel beat’ the document in whatever manner lawmakers believe in, without involving citizens in the process.
What is implicit in Senator Mark’s theory about the current constitution not having a space for sovereign national conference is the conviction that Nigeria is about promoting statism, rather than creating a country or community of interests held by human beings. Statism refers to a notion that a country should be run as a bureaucracy, with emphasis on what those charged to run the bureaucracy prefer to do, rather than what citizens prefer to have. Our lawmakers need to realise that our country is in a process of democratisation and that real democracy is likely to be elusive until a people’s constitution is adopted to guide the country’s political culture. This should not be anything too difficult for our legislators to get in a country that went into election in 1999 without seeing a copy of the constitution that has now become untouchable to citizens.
Holding briefs for authors of the 1999 Constitution and promoting the constitution as a sacred document that is available only to elected lawmakers to review without any substantial input from citizens is a dangerous thing to do. Our lawmakers who have chosen to amend a constitution that citizens prefer to be replaced need to know that for a constitution to be acceptable and respectable to people, citizens must believe in the transparency of the process that leads to the making of the constitution. Citizens had gone to court to challenge the claim in and by the 1999 Constitution that it was authored by the people of Nigeria. Late Biodun Oki spent the last years of his life to prove in court that the 1999 Constitution is not a constitution created with the consent of the people.
Senator Mark’s worry: Where will the Sovereign National Conference be deriving its sovereigntyfrom, and under what framework? How will the conference be convoked and by whom and under what terms?” indicates the Senate President’s preference for statism as an approach to solving a fundamental political problem about the welfare and wellbeing of citizens of a country. These are questions that citizens should be given the opportunity to answer. Each constituency can prepare a handbook for its lawmaker to take to the national assembly on how to convoke a national conference. But this will be possible only in a context in which lawmakers see themselves as representatives of citizens, and not as their masters.
Nigerians calling for a sovereign national conference are doing so for an obvious reason: demilitarising the Nigerian polity by replacing a constitution imposed on the country by a group of military dictators with a constitution negotiated freely by citizens. Callers for a people’s constitution believe that the military must have had a hidden agenda behind the 1999 Constitution, more so that the constitution did not see the light of day until after the election of 1999. Lawmakers who subscribe to the tenets of democracy need not act in a way to suggest that they also accept the hidden agenda behind a constitution imposed on Nigerians by departing military dictators. Senator Mark’s recent quibbling about sovereignty and sovereign national conference gives the impression that the national assembly is averse to referendum, because it is afraid of coming to terms with the real feelings of millions of Nigerians about the current constitution. If Nigeria is going to get its economics and development right, it is, asDaronAcemoglu and James A. Robinson, authors of WhyNations Fail have observed, necessary to get its politics right. Getting our country’s politics right requires a transparent process of creating a constitution that is acceptable to the generality of the people. And lawmakers should act on the side of citizens on how to bring about a constitution that is acceptable primarily to citizens, and not just to lawmakers.
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Mark to politicians: Put God first
President of the Senate, David Mark, on Wededay urged politicians to put God first as the 2015 elections draw near.
Mark, according to a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Paul Mumeh, in Abuja, spoke at a church service to mark the one year rememberance of the pioneer priest of the St. Mulumba Catholic Chaplaincy Apo, late Rev. Fr. Jerome Bello.
He stated that death is a necessary end that must come when it shall but man is always scared of it, saying “what is paramount is for man to live a righteous life and be prepared for it.
Mark said, “Therefore, whatever we do as humans, we must be conscious of the fact that we must one day die and after death, judgment, where all mortals must give account of his or her stewardship on earth.
“Our politics is again gathering momentum and people are already joining the fray. All of us, politicians must realize that we must put God first in all we do. That is the only way, we can succeed. Whatever we do, let it be to the glory of God and service to humanity.”
He also called on Nigerians not despair in the face of the myriads of challenges but to resort to the Almighty creator for solution.
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We did not ‘neglect’ injured worker, says firm
The employer of 17-year-old industrial accident victim, Master Izuchukwu Kanu, has denied ‘neglecting’ or refusing to compensate him.
Kalu had asked the company, Trisa Nigeria Limited, to pay him N50 million as compensation.
He also petitioned Senate President David Mark, urging him to intervene in what he said amounted to treating a citizen with “disdain” by a foreign company doing business in Nigeria.
“Our client’s right hand has been so badly damaged and violated by this injury that he is not reasonably expected to work with it again in his life time.
“We were informed by our client’s relatives that Master Izuchukwu Kanu was less than 18 years of age while at the employment of Trisa Nigeria Limited.
“We urge you to use your good offices to direct the company to do the needful and adequately compensate our client for the permanent injury he sustained while working as a factory worker in Trisa Nigeria Limited,” Kalu’s lawyer Mr Ifeanyi Onyejiaka wrote.
But Trisa Nigeria, through its lawyers–Chike Okoro and Umeh Ezeh-said the allegations were not true, adding that a report on the issue may have created an “ugly impression” in the minds of the reading public.
The firm said: “The lawyer (Onyejiaka) seems not to be interested in the welfare of his client but imagines he can trade with the health of the young man. Every effort to get his client to submit to proper treatment has failed.
“Also, every effort to get his client to take benefit of the insurance cover by the company has failed. It is difficult to understand what he wants. He has refused medical treatment. He absconded from hospital. He has refused to fill the necessary insurance forms for payment if found due.
“It is surprising that the lawyer has chosen the path of intimidation and blackmail and threats. He has threatened not only to use the press but even to hire thugs which he called members of the family of his client.”
The firm denied the allegation that Kalu was under 18 when he was employed by Trisa.
“The records available to the company show that Izuchukwu is an adult and of working age.
“The company has undertaken and is willing and ready to ensure proper treatment for him if he makes himself available for treatment. The company has a good and proper insurance cover for all categories of its workers in genuine cases of fault on the part of the company,” Trisa said.
In a letter to Onyejiaka, dated December 20, 2012, Trisa Nigeria said its record did not show that Kalu was its employee.
“The name of the said Izuchukwu appeared in the category of workers under daily hire as independent contractors or workers.
“The company did not employ the said Izuchukwu to work or handle any equipment or machinery, as the company has and maintains a qualified and trained staff for all its equipment and machinery.”
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The strange case of Charity Uzoechina
For mischief makers religion is always a useful tool. That point was hammered home again in the Nigerian Senate last week when in the course of retouching a section of the constitution dealing with citizenship lawmakers veered off course.
Today, senators find themselves battling the backlash from outraged Nigerians who say their action opened a loophole for people to legally take child brides.
Although they insist they didn’t lower the age of consent or amend the Child Rights Act, Senate President David Mark has admitted many of his Muslim colleagues were blackmailed into voting a certain way once former Zamfara State Governor Ahmed Sani Yerima introduced religious sentiments.
That a group of people at that level could blithely ignore the serious ramifications, and endorse a clause that is open to all sorts of interpretations, underlines the power of religion.
It is not only in the Senate that badly-managed religion is playing havoc with people’s lives. This Thursday, August 1, a Sharia Court in Bida, Niger State, will rule whether one Charity Uzoechina, a 24-year old student of the Federal Polytechnic in the town, will be allowed to return home to her parents.
The case has been rumbling for months, and revolves around Uzoechina’s alleged renunciation of Christianity and embrace of Islam.
Her father, Raymond Uzoechina, a pastor with The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Abuja, denies his daughter converted to Islam, alleging she was hypnotised and kidnapped, and is being held captive in the palace of the Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar.
For his part, the traditional ruler claims Charity, or ‘Aisha’ as she’s now called, was not being held against her will. He has presented legal documents where Charity claims to have converted to Islam and says her father could kill her for the move. That threat ostensibly prodded her to seek protection from the Palace and the Sharia Court.
The court duly obliged, ordering “that the custody of the plaintiff be entrusted in the hand of Etsu Nupe for the time being and the Etsu Nupe should employ a qualified Islamic scholar who will be teaching her and showing her what the Islamic customs is all about and the plaintiff can even be watching and selecting a man of her choice whom she will want to marry as her partner.”
While the Sharia Court is already making marriage plans for her, Charity has dropped out of school and remains holed up in the Etsu Nupe’s palace.
Pastor Uzoechina vehemently denies the version of events as retailed by the palace and the court. On the day when that ruling was given he was not present. He rejects talk that the Emir tried to broker peace between him and his daughter – insisting that the last time he saw Charity she had an emotional breakdown.
“My daughter was crying when we saw her. They never allowed us speak with her. It is not true that the royal father invited me and the girl for talks, with the hope of reconciling us. On March 2, I came to the palace and was taken before the Etsu Nupe. The Etsu Nupe never asked the girl to go back home with me as claimed,” he said in The Nation this week.
In the four months over which this controversy has raged, virtually everyone has had their say. Charity’s father, as is to be expected, has been vocal in expressing his outrage. President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, to whom he ran for help, has been relentless in demanding answers.
His intervention provoked a response from the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA). Both the Sharia Court and the Etsu Nupe have also tried to defend themselves. The only missing voice in the hubbub is the most critical – Charity’s.
Third parties have been regaling us with what she said or didn’t say. But this needless controversy can be cleared up in a minute if the lady at the center of the storm would be allowed by those in whose custody she presently is, to speak for herself.
Every side claims to be telling the truth and yet we know there can only be one version of the truth. The only person who can clear things up is not being allowed to speak. All those interested in the unvarnished truth ought to ask why?
Section 38 (1) of the 1999 constitution provides for freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change one’s religion or belief. It also allows us to propagate our religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.
However, in canvassing one’s beliefs there’s no room for coercion. Uzoechina’s claim that his daughter was abducted is very grave. Kidnapping is a criminal offence. The fact that neither the parents nor the Etsu Nupe can agree on the circumstances that caused Charity to wind up in the palace ought to attract more than cursory interest from the police. That is assuming they can export the same zeal with which they are ‘enforcing the rule of law’ in Rivers State to probing a matter involving a high profile traditional ruler in Niger State.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) ought also to be very interested for we might just have on our hands an egregious case of violation of a citizen’s rights.
There are issues about the legal process that judicial authorities need to look into. For example, what notion of justice makes it acceptable to drag a Christian before a Sharia Court?
Does any court under our constitution have the power to circumscribe a person’s liberty just to propagate a religious belief? Does any court have the power to assume custody of an adult who has not committed any crime? Under which law can a court commit an adult into the care of a traditional ruler?
We need to understand whether justice is being served in this case or whether this is another manifestation of impunity for which present day Nigeria is becoming notorious.
Uzoechina alleges that he has not received fair hearing. He claims not to have been served notice of hearing and that the same day – March 4, the complaint was presented before court, judgment was given and executed. Those who exercise oversight over the courts ought to investigate this.
We must acknowledge that the individual involved in not a minor but 24 years old. Even then she was living with her parents and was still responsible to them. She may be old enough to take her own decisions – assuming she did indeed convert – but her father and mother were entitled to an explanation. The absence of such a discussion will make any parent suspicious. This is especially so given that reports of forced conversions are rife in the north.
Despite the Etsu Nupe’s protestations there are just too many unanswered questions and posers. As the girl’s father has pointed out, even if Charity wants to practice Islam, it doesn’t have to be under the Emir’s roof. His home is not a government remand center.
This whole business is not positive for the traditional ruler. The Etsu Nupe stool is one of the most respected in the country. He doesn’t need this messy controversy to drag on. He can control the damage being done to his image by setting Charity free.
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Re: David Mark in the vortex of history
Dear readers, this article was first published here February 17, 2012 and re-run March 30, 2012. I serve it to you a third time as this matter has assumed a global dimension; and embarrassingly so too. The Economist of London in its current edition brands Nigerian lawmakers as the highest paid in the world. There is nothing to add to it than to reiterate the Igbo adage that when a baby sobs and points at a direction, if its mother isn’t there, its father surely must be.
Leaders without vision do not care about history. They are too dim and too enamored with the trappings of this fleeting moment to spare a thought for tomorrow. They bury themselves in the inane perquisites of today’s office and position; they deny the reality of tomorrow and ignore the power of history. But surely there will be tomorrow and history will be told as long as there is life on earth. If only leaders in positions would stop awhile and pop the question at themselves: how will history judge me?
How will history judge the current Senate President, David Bonaventure Mark? I have elected to ask this question on this page for many reasons. First it was triggered by the news recently that each Senator will get a N16 million state-of-the-art jeep as official car and second, at the end of this tenure, he would have been in the Senate for a total of 16 years, eight of which would have been at the helm of the National Assembly (NASS) as Senate President. This position makes him the de facto number two man in the land. But most important, providence has hoisted him onto a position to tinker with history, to shape history, to direct history and in deed to make history. So we ask today, what has he done (will he do in the remaining period) with this gavel of history handed to him? But sorry to say that so far, he has bungled his moments in history and here are some reasons why:
Poor personal leadership example: As has been mentioned above, the senate presidency is the second most powerful and influential position in the land and Mark would have done eight years by 2015. Under a more perspicacious and insightful personage, that position has the capacity to bring about far-reaching changes in Nigeria. By sheer effusion of personal examples from the man at the helm, the legislative arm (down to the State assemblies) would have been the unblinking moral compass of the various governments.
We saw a glimmer of this leadership precept in the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. He said he would uphold the rule of law, he showed practical examples at the critical time and soon the judiciary caught on to it and this was reflected in the court rulings of that time. He declared his assets and made it public for the whole world to see; the first time any president would do that in our recent history. Without being prompted, his vice and other governors followed suit. In less than three years, Yar’Adua made more salutary impact on the psyche of Nigerians and had more positive influence on our system than President Olusegun Obasanjo did in eight years. Today, the bonfire billowing in the upper chamber can be seen burning most assuredly in all the houses of assembly across the land. Just like the Senate, they have all become hollow chambers of mercantilism and debauchery.
Lack of probity and transparency: All of a sudden Nigerians can’t tell anymore, how much their legislators earn. All we know now is that being a legislator in Nigeria (at any level) is the best job in the world. It must be the highest paying and most risk-free job known anywhere. Never a headache from any graft agency as other government officials suffer; in spite of the cries and clamour by the populace the legislature insists on creating a fiscal haven of its own that defies appropriation acts and revenue guidelines.
The hallowed chambers of the National Assembly seem ensconced in the bosom of mammon and held spell bound by its self-awarded boundless perquisites of office. NASS is certainly the new honey pot of a rotten Republic. Legislators have become so licentious that they would corral banks into granting them billions of naira in loans to share. At what interest rates and costs to the taxpayer? It is on this framework that the current Senators would award themselves a N16 million official car in a time of severe austerity in the land. At a period the populace has been badgered into relinquishing the only ‘subsidy’ they enjoy; at a time that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has determined that 100 million Nigerians are dirt poor earning less the$1 a day. It is doubtful if any other senator anywhere in the world rides such an exotic machine at tax payers’ expense.
Oversight function, oversight extortion: This is the most critical function of the legislature apart from passing bills. But this key instrument of check and balance has been bastardised and debased. It has become an instrument for self-aggrandisement and extortion. MDAs across the country are comatose and non-functioning because oversight function on them is weak or nonexistent. If the legislature is compromised by the MDAs where would it find the moral authority to exercise oversight? Any wonder things like turnaround maintenance (TAM) on our refineries are mired, a road project right under the nose of the Senate in Abuja is overpriced to the tune of N38 billion; corruption grows organic and cancerous in the land eating up the entire fabric of the society yet nobody seems to know what to do. What about the probe panels in various legislative assemblies? Mum is the word on this ‘cash cow’.
People alienated and unrepresented: May we urge the Senate President to do an unscheduled tour of the constituency offices of his members and while at it, inspect the constituency projects for which huge funds are allotted to his members. It is a stark fact that most Nigerians do not know their legislators; there is hardly any functional constituency office anywhere, no projects for monies allotted and no town hall meetings. No country will grow one inch with legislators of this ilk.
In conclusion, the NASS has become very toxic to this country, unbeknown to the members. The onus is on David Mark to resolve to pick his spot in history. Let’s note that history is not about the wealthiest man or the most powerful of his time but about he who brings the most positive change to his people and society. Fortunately he still has a bit of time. Few quick things he can do quietly with his colleagues include fashioning out a simple, workable code of conduct,; making sure that member have standard and functional constituency offices, ensure town hall meetings are held regularly by members, ensure that the auditor-general of the federation does his work and releases his annual report promptly, and ensure probity, accountability and transparency in the finances of the Senate. The Senate can rescue the country from the current slide down the slope if it resolves to have a fresh start.
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Senate to pass 2013 amended budget Thursday
All things being equal the Senate would pass the 2013 amendment budget on Thursday.
The controversial budget scaled second reading in the Senate on Tuesday with Senate President, David Mark, directing the Appropriation Committee to work and return the budget for consideration within 24 hours.
The upper chamber had earlier vowed not to consider the budget due to some differences with the Presidency on some areas of the proposed amendments.
The bill seeks to authorize the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation the total sum of N4, 987, 220,425,601.
In line with the directive of the Senate President, Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Ahmed Maccido (Sokoto North) presented the report of his committee to the Senate in plenary on Wednesday.
The upper chamber should have considered the report immediately after presentation of the report, but Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, said the lawmakers should be given some time to go through the work of the Appropriation Committee.
Ndoma-Egba said that it was necessary for Senators to acquaint themselves with report of the Appropriation Committee.
A source told our correspondent that barring other considerations, the budget would be considered and passed on Thursday.
He noted that it became necessary to expedite action on the budget because the Senate would be proceeding on its vacation.
Mark urged Senator to take their oversight function more seriously to ensure faithful implementation of the budget.
