By Mohammed Isa
The National Assembly yesterday declared that it would not forward the amended constitution to President Goodluck Jonathan for assent. The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bayero Nafada, made this known while declaring open a public hearing on a bill to further alter the constitution, and establish the National Industrial Court (NIC) which took place in Abuja.
Nafada noted that the call for presidential assent to the amendment of the constitution was very unnecessary, as it was not provided for in the constitution.
“The Constitution is now amended and it will soon be gazetted and sent to the Attorney General of the Federation. On the question of whether the constitution amendment requires the signature of the President or not, that is their (executive arm of government) concern because the amended constitution does not require the signature of the President. Very Soon, clean copies will be sent to the Presidency, Ministry of Justice and whoever is concerned,” he said.
The Deputy Speaker disclosed that the establishment of the NIC ought to be given constitutional recognition, and tasked the ad-hoc committee on the inclusion of the NIC in the Constitution not to waste much time in submitting a report to the House for consideration in that regard.
“When the 1999 Constitution was promulgated either by default or oversight, the NIC was not recognised. However, the provisions of Sections 315 and 316 of the Constitution recognises the existence of the Trade Dispute Amendment Act of 2002 which accords the NIC status of a superior court of record as having been established under the 1999 constitution.
“There is no doubt that these state of affairs have caused a level of disquiet in the NIC’s ability to conclusively discharge matters or cases brought before it”, he said.
The Supreme Court, it would be recalled had in February 2010, ruled against the recognition of the NIC based on the 2006 Act passed to that effect by the National Assembly, arguing that the only way to doing so was for an amendment of the Constitution to list the NIC as one of the courts of superior records.
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