As the country remains on
the tenterhooks following the
absence of ailing President
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua from
the country for over 70
days, indications have
emerged that the National
Assembly is set to amend the
1999 Constitution to include
a provision for two vice
presidents. Daily Sun
gathered from highly reliable
sources that the Senate and
the House Committees on
Constitution Review may
have been requested to
expeditiously tinker the
relevant sections of the
Constitution to accommodate
a provision for two vice
presidents.
Our source, who is a ranking
member of the Upper
Chamber, said the calculation
is that the separate review
committees of the two
houses may be left with no
choice than to adopt the
recommendations of the Joint
Committee on Constitution
Review (JCCR) which was
made in 2007. The committee
was headed by former
Deputy Senate President,
Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu. The
103-clause draft report was
tabled at the two chambers
just before the 2007 general
election but was thrown out
because of one
controversial clause, which
sought to introduce a Third
Term for the president. The
controversial clause was
suspected to have been
included primarily for the
benefit of President,
Olusegun Obasanjo, who
allegedly wanted to elongate
his tenure beyond the
maximum two-term tenure.
But Daily Sun gathered that
with the current power
vacuum and the looming
constitutional crisis in the
country occasioned by the
protracted illness of
President Yar'Adua, the
imperative of two vice
presidents as recommended
by the Mantu committee might
have dawned on the
lawmakers. They now want
to revisit the Mantu
committee report by "sifting
the grains from the chaff,"
the source revealed.
"We will not make the
mistake of carrying the
entire 103 clauses for
amendment as the last
National Assembly did. We
will restrict ourselves to few
vital clauses among them,
including the clause that
provides for two vice
presidents," the source
further disclosed.
It is noteworthy that the
Senate had last Wednesday
directed its "committee on
the review of the 1999
Constitution to propose an
amendment" to "...the
constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria 1999 to
resolve the flaws exposed
by the present
circumstance" in the country.
Although, the Senate
resolution, which also urged
President Yar'Adua to
formally notify the National
Assembly of his medical
vacation only mentioned
Section 145 of the
Constitution as the aspect
that needed urgent
amendment, the source
hinted that a new clause
making provision for two
vice presidents was also
part of the mandate given
the review committee.
When Daily Sun interviewed
the former JCCR Chairman
whose committee initially
made the recommendation,
he said it was not his
business what the current
National Assembly did with
the report even as he
confirmed that his committee
actually recommended two
vice presidents for the
country.
Mantu, who spoke at his
Abuja residence, said: "We
made our recommendations
with the stability, peace and
unity of the country at the
back of our minds. You can
see that if that report was
debated and accepted, we
would not have been in this
tight corner that we have
found ourselves today
because we envisaged that
this kind of development
might arise once in a while in
our political history. What we
proposed with good intention
is that one of the two vice
presidents should be from
the geo-political zone where
the president comes from so
that in the event of
incapacitation, resignation or
death, the vice president
from the incumbent
president's zone would
serve out the remaining
years for the zone. But
unfortunately, those who
believed that they know
better than the rest of the
people came with their
blackmail and what resulted
was the throwing away of
the baby with the bath
water."
Asked whether he would re-
submit the report to the
present National Assembly if
called upon to do so, he said
it was not for him to do that,
adding that the report was
still there in the archives as
the property of National
Assembly. "It is left to them
to revisit it or throw it into
the dustbin. We have done
our bit, but what I can say is
that we did a good job to the
best of our ability. We may
not have been perfect as
human beings but we
contributed our quota. No
one person can be blamed
for the clause on Third Term
because it was something
majority of the members of
the committee adopted; but if
one out of over 100 clauses
was considered bad, why not
remove that clause or few
clauses and pass the rest
for the benefit of the society
rather than sacrifice the
whole report. It is really
painful, considering the time,
resources and energy spent
in reaching that stage and
putting together that report.
And remember, Nigeria is a
very big and complex
country that requires some
peculiar political engineering
to manage," the former
deputy Senate president
between 2000 and 2007
emphasised.
Concerning the lingering ill-
health of the President,
Mantu said: "First of all, I'm
happy that you
acknowledged that anybody
can be sick and that
anybody can die at any
given time. Sickness and
death are two things that
can befall anybody at any
given time... Therefore when
somebody falls sick,
ordinarily what he deserves
is sympathy and prayers
that God will heal him fast.
That is the case particularly
if the person is very highly
placed like the president of
the country. The nation
should pray for him so that
he will recover quickly and
continue with the affairs of
running the state.
He said it was unfortunate
that people were politicizing
the illness of the President,
contending that: "This is not
the first President to fall sick
while in office. There are
many Presidents in the world
that I have read about who
had fallen sick while in office.
In fact, recently Cuban
President, Fidel Castro was
sick and could not be in his
office for about two years
while somebody was acting in
his place and when he
recovered he returned and
continued with service as
the President of that
country. I also know that at a
point in time, the President
of the USA was on a wheel
chair and yet continued in
office as President until his
tenure expired."
According to Mantu,
administering or governing a
country or state "does not
require the energy of Mike
Tyson necessarily," adding
that it is the mental capacity
that is most needed. He also
argued that there was no
power vacuum as some
people believed. "The Vice
President is there and
basically, the job of any Vice
President is to act in the
capacity of the principal
when the principal is away.
So, Goodluck Jonathan has
been acting as President in
the absence of the
President. And I know that
since the advent of this
democratic dispensation in
1999, major government
decisions had always been
taken at the Wednesday's
Federal Executive Council
meetings. And since
President Yar'Adua left the
country, there has never
been a Wednesday that the
Federal Executive Council
failed to hold."
Mantu expressed
satisfaction with the manner
Vice President Jonathan has
been acting in the absence
of the President. "I'm happy
with the actions he
(Jonathan) had been taking
in that capacity so far, like
ordering that troops be
deployed in Plateau following
the crisis in Jos to assist the
Police," he stated.

Can that  be the solution Nigeria is looking for?

Let us hope...but Yar'Adua should obey the section 145 of1999 constitution.

Let us hope...but Yar'Adua should obey the section 145 of 1999 constitution.