The 127th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) ended in Quebec City, Canada on October 27. Citizenship, identity, cultural and linguistic diversity in a globalised world featured. Nigerians delegates at the meeting found it the moment to report measures being taken to promote constitutionalism and constitution amendment. Assistant Editor Onyedi Ojiabor reports.
IT was a discourse so frank and forthright at the just-ended 127th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). It was held in Quebec, Canada.
The world’s highest forum for parliamentary dialogue, cooperation and action drew delegates from across the globe who seized the opportunity of the meeting to promote and defend democracy, rule of law, universal values, norms and principles.
The delegates also spoke in favour of gender equality, particularly, the participation of women, minorities and indigenous peoples in political and public life.
With the theme “Citizenship, identity, cultural and linguistic diversity in a globalised world,” the 127th IPU opened with a thought provoking address by the President of the Union, Mr. Abdelwahad Radi.
The address covered challenges and prospects of the IPU and the resolve of member parliaments to advance three priority objectives in the next five years. These include strengthening democracy through parliaments, advancing gender equality and protecting and promoting human rights.
Radi declared that “we are meeting in turbulent times, with new fault lines developing along religious, racial, cultural and political divides that we could not have fathomed 25 years ago.”
The IPU President wondered why “we witness the development of international criminality and lawlessness on an unprecedented scale.” A situation, he said, was claiming the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of people every day.
He feared that “organised crime syndicates are threatening to become more powerful than the state in certain cases,”Radi lamented.
Senate President Senator David Mark, who led the Nigerian delegation, seized the opportunity to raise the stake about the on-going constitution amendment in the country.
Mark was not alone in the effort to tell the world about the determination of the Nigerian parliament to fashion out a constitution with human face for the country. Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, further underscored the resolve of the National Assembly in Nigeria to create the peoples’ constitution.
Drawing inspiration from the theme of the conference, Mark unfolded efforts by the Nigerian parliament to alter the status quo, especially, in relation to the contentious and touchy issue of application of “state of origin” through constitution review.
The Senate President also brought to the fore, the resolve of the Nigerian parliament to do the needful to ensure that women in the country and minority interests are secured and protected by entrenching in the constitution provisions that seek to advance their course.
For him, though nations habour their own peculiarities, diversities should be managed within local context while also drawing from international best practices and standards.
Mark referred to the insightful part of Nigeria’s old national anthem: “Though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand” to emphasise his belief fact that differences in tribe and language should not be a barrier to any nation that wants to develop.
Nations, he emphasized, should first acknowledge the blessing of different linguistic and cultural diversities and secondly, further recognize that the nature-made diversities were not meant to divide the world, but to give it the tonic of variety globally acknowledged as the spice of life.
He believed that proper management of citizenship, identity and linguistic and cultural diversities in a globalizing world is an international challenge albeit with local solutions.
Mark did not lose sight of the fact that while efforts and initiative by IPU as a mother body for parliaments all over the world will chart the broad roadmap to cement global brotherhood, national parliaments must take the bull by the horn by domesticating the Quebec City Declaration of a common humanity.
The Senate President was bold to declare: “The National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is not just in total support of raising the stake in the management of diversities in a globalised world; we are already taking steps to ensure that every minority interest within the Nigerian State is well protected. We are working to remove all obstacles that hinder unity and harmonious co-existence. At the moment, efforts are on course at the National Assembly to further amend the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He informed the Assembly that cardinal among the issues on the constitution amendment agenda in Nigeria is to revisit some constitutional provisions which seemed to contradict one another and the spirit of the constitution on the rights and privileges of Nigerians.
One such discriminatory provision that the Nigerian parliament is taking another look at, he posited, is the question of “state of origin” as against “state of residence.”
Relying on the constitution, he noted that whereas Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution is explicit that “a citizen of Nigeria shall not (1) be subjected to disabilities or restriction to which citizen of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic, group, place of origin, sex, religious or political opinion— (2) No citizen of Nigeria shall be subjected to any disability or deprivation merely by reason of the circumstances of his birth,” some parts of the Constitution made it compulsory for certain political office holders to be indigenes (not residents) of the benefiting states.
For the Senate President, such discriminatory provisions fuel indigene-settler row, hence “Nigerians feel that this can be best addressed by replacing the “State of Origin “ provision with “State of Residence .”
To enhance the rights and privileges of every Nigerian in any part of the country, irrespective of his or her state of origin, language, ethnicity, and religion, Mark assured the world body that the National Assembly would actualise the change.
He could not fathom why a resident in any part of the country for 20 years could still be tagged a settler.
“I think it is a difficult task but in my candid opinion, I think if we have an open mind and we approach it from a nationalist perspective, rather than a small, clannish perspective, we would get it right.
“Once you are resident in a place and you perform your civic responsibilities for the period, there is no reason you should not benefit from the place, provided of course, you don’t claim dual residency,” Mark insisted.
On his part, Ihedioha, also brought to the fore, the message of the on-going constitution review in the country. Ihedioha who is also Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Constitution review assured that the amendment would offer Nigerians uncommon opportunity to decide how to live together in peace for the good and progress of the country.
He reiterated the resolve of the House to ensure grassroots participation in the constitution review process.
For him, the “peoples-public-sessions” of the House was created to ensure that no Nigerian citizen irrespective of class, place of abode and/or affiliation is denied a chance to make input.
He declared that the public sessions will take the 360 members of the House to their constituents for an inclusive consultative meeting in their constituencies on the way forward for the country.
The public sessions, he said, was particularly designed to ensure that the voice of those in the grassroots are not only heard but also reflected in the amended constitution. Ihedioha believed that “constitution amendment is not a process that should be left in the hands of the political class or a vocal elite that exerts some control over advocacy machineries alone.
“That is why the House of Representatives has designed this innovative, peoples-public-sessions to provide opportunity for all strata of Nigerians to make input into the kind of constitution they want. For the first time, we are directly taking the constitution amendment to the doorsteps of the Nigerian people, going beyond the usual zonal hearing that more often than not get hijacked by a self-same elite endowed with the means to manipulate public opinion.
“The sessions will be no-holds-barred, non-partisan and broad-based as the National Assembly will not impose a ceiling on the range of amendments sought by Nigerians.”
He assured stakeholders of the willingness of the House to approach issues thrown up for amendment with an open mind so long as the end result is truly reflective of the desires of Nigerians for equity, justice, and fair play across board.
On the theme of the conference, he said it re-echoed the fundamental challenges the country had faced with respect to issues like the indigene/settler controversy, state creation and structure of government.
The challenges, he said, could be addressed and successfully resolved holistically through a constitution amendment process as is being championed by the National Assembly.
Apart from focus on citizenship, identity, cultural and linguistic diversity, one important resolution adopted by the Assembly was the unanimous endorsement of the use of force to flush out armed rebel groups in northern Mali .
The Assembly condemned the serious human rights abuses by armed rebel groups in northern Mali and threw its weight behind international military efforts to regain control of the area.
It was an emergency resolution adopted at the closing session of the Assembly. IPU members strongly condemned the killings, abuses and violations against civilians, in particular women and children.
These and the wanton pillaging and destruction of Mali’s cultural and religious world heritage sites led IPU members to welcome both the French, European Union and United Nations commitments to helping Mali retake the large swathes of territory occupied by armed terrorist groups.
The resolution urged Mali ’s armed forces to fully cooperate with international forces when they are deployed. It also urged the Malian transitional government to hold free and fair elections once the security situation, which has debilitated the country, has abated.
The Quebec City Declaration called on parliaments to do all they can to protect diversity as a global value. Conventions and laws protecting human rights and diversity, according to the resolution, should also be ratified, adopted and implemented.
The Declaration reaffirmed IPU’s commitment to the right to freedom of thought, opinion, and expression, but also condemned those that intimidated and incited extremism, hatred, racism and violence.
It covered a wide range of important issues, including the marginalization of indigenous peoples; the need to find solutions for those that are stateless; ensuring national legal frameworks, provide effective access to legal protection and remedies for those suffering discrimination, and the need for special measures to pave the way for women’s full participation in politics and governance.
It lamented that despite the fact that women represent half the global population, they represent only 20 per cent of the 46,000 parliamentarians in the world.
The action plan adopted by the Assembly tackles women’s access to parliaments, parity within roles and ranks inside parliament, legal frameworks, improving the gender infrastructure and culture within parliaments and engaging political parties to effect change on the issue. It highlights the use of special measures to ensure that more women are selected by political parties to run for “winnable” seats and amending national electoral laws and constitutions.
In a move that would radically change the way parliaments have been run over time and to help achieve a work-family balance, the action plan calls for parliaments to rearrange their sitting hours so MPs can spend more time with their families.
Among the many actions being put forward by the plan is enacting, updating and implementing gender equality laws.
