It’s giving selective amnesia
The lawmakers amending our constitution are moving weird
Good morning, Big Brains. Every year, I ask God not to put me on the strongest soldiers list, but who am I kidding? I’m a Nigerian living in Nigeria. I’m not sure we’ve ever left that list.
- Margaret
Word count: ~ 1,000
Reading time ~ 5 mins
Let’s get into today’s edition:
The lawmakers amending our constitution are moving weird
EFCC is recovering the money CBEX stole from Nigerians
The Big Deal
The lawmakers amending our constitution are moving weird
Trusting Nigerian lawmakers is just as good as trusting Rihanna to drop new music (with actual lyrics); you’ll end up disappointed. If you’re wondering what they’ve done this time, the more realistic question is “What haven’t they done?”
The 1999 constitution has been getting a facelift, AKA, Constitution Review, since February 2024. According to Honourable Benjamin Kalu, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and head of the House of Representatives Committee on Constitution Review, the amended constitution is supposed to be ready by December 2025. But judging by the recent drama in the House, that deadline isn’t looking good.
Over the past two weeks, these lawmakers have managed to turn such a serious legislative process into a display of confusion, mistakes, and chaos.
Even though the House hasn’t exactly been the most vocal about the amendment process, local reports suggest that seven sensitive bills are responsible for the chaos. The most interesting of all seven bills includes one proposing that the presidency rotate across Nigeria’s six regions, another bill designed to strip Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of its power to regulate political parties (a bill backed by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas), and creating the role of Auditor-General for Local Governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Councils.
If passed, the other bills are designed to set a minimum of 100 judges for the Federal High Court, give the National Judicial Council (NJC) more power to decide how much judges and court staff should earn and create a new local government area called Ughelli East in Delta State.
When the bills were presented, Kalu gathered them and called for one single vote. Lawmakers voted “no,” and all the bills were rejected.
Francis Waive, head of the Rules and Business Committee, pointed out that each bill should have been voted on separately, instead of a collective vote that led to rejection. But according to House rules, it was too late to do anything about it.
As if that isn’t crazy enough, the House conveniently broke its rules a few days later when some lawmakers presented and passed the same rejected bills, like nothing had happened.
The worst part is that the Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abass, didn’t even know these bills had been rejected previously. In fact, he was as confused as you probably are right now. While all the other lawmakers acted like they had selective amnesia, Kingsley Chinda, representing the Obio/Akpor constituency, reminded the House that they had voted against those bills. All seven bills have been suspended again, and they are back to square one.
Why is this a big deal?
The Constitution affects our lives, and we deserve to know that its amendments are being taken seriously. Unfortunately, the back-and-forth doesn’t exactly make us confident in how the process is going.
It also doesn’t help that the lawmakers in question, including Speaker Abass, have a reputation for proposing controversial bills.
In June 2024, 35 lawmakers decided that four years wasn’t enough to endure not-so-great governance, so they presented the bright idea of extending presidential and gubernatorial terms from four years to six years. This change, if allowed, is designed to make office holders run single terms instead of two.
They tried to sell the idea by claiming it would reduce the cost of governance and bring political stability. To make it official, they attempted to amend Sections 7, 135, 137, 180, and 182(1) of the 1999 Constitution. While this wasn’t the worst idea in the world, it ruffled some feathers and rightfully so, too. It would mean that terrible presidents and governors would rule for six years without Nigerians getting the chance to vote them out. As history has shown, we’ve not had enough luck with leaders to walk down that road.
At this rate, if the constitution ever gets amended by December 2025, it might not be the “people’s constitution” we were promised. It could very well be another document packed with controversial clauses and political loopholes.
EFCC is recovering the money CBEX stole from Nigerians
Karma might not exist, but consequences? They exist like mad. It’s been a month since the Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX) scammed 600,000 Nigerians and gave the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) a good reason to stay up at night.
It turns out that those sleepless nights paid off because the EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede recently confirmed that they’ve managed to recover “a reasonable amount” of the money that disappeared when CBEX folded in April. We’re not sure how much this “reasonable amount” is, but he insists the recovery is still happening. According to him, arrests have been made and several suspects are already in EFCC custody.
But CBEX’s victims are probably not going to get their money anytime soon because Olukoyede admitted they’ve had trouble turning the recovered crypto back to physical dollars.
We want to judge so bad, but a delayed refund is better than losing your money forever, right?
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We didn’t see many people celebrating President Tinubu’s second year in office anniversary, but judging by the latest (and valid) crash out by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), there isn’t much to celebrate.