Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu on Tuesday said the planned convocation of the national would not hinder the ongoing constitution review process, insisting that the National Assembly would have to amend the constitution to give legal backing to the end result of the confab.
Ekweremadu who is the chairman of the senate committee on constitution amendment assured that the proposed national dialogue would neither delay nor disrupt the ongoing constitution amendment process.
He gave these assurances in Abuja while delivering a paper entitled “Constitution Review Process: A Comparative Perspective” at the ongoing African Legislative Summit being organised by the National Assembly and other international partners.
He said that in view of the new provisions on how to enact a new constitution already passed by the Senate and awaiting other steps to become part of the constitution, the ongoing constitution amendment process would rather help to provide the legal frameworks that would give life to the eventual output of the proposed national dialogue.
He said: “There is no way the ongoing efforts at convoking a national dialogue would adversely affect or necessitate the suspension of the ongoing constitution amendment process. In fact, the Conference Committee of both Chambers of the National Assembly will soon be put together to harmonize the work of the Constitution Review Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
“We cannot wait for the national dialogue because we do not know when it will start or when it will end. But the good thing is that our work will even help to provide the necessary legal frameworks that would give life to the outcome of the dialogue.”
Ekweremadu, however, pointed out that the way forward for Africa was not necessarily in the abundance of laws, but the willingness and discipline to live by the dictates of the constitution.
He added: ‘The important thing is the practice; the value we place on the constitution, and our attitude to governance that will determine whether a constitution will succeed or not. The United Kingdom has no written constitution anywhere, but it is one of the best-governed countries in the world because of the value system they have entrenched over the years. The American Constitution is one of the smallest constitutions in the world, yet it has sufficed for them for over 200 years.
“We believe that with the proper value and orientation, there will be no need for frequent change of the constitution. If we have a just society where we get justice from the courts, where the correct laws are made, and the executive executes the laws without fear or favour and offenders are punished without reference to where they are coming from or their political persuasions, we are going to have a just society; and I don’t think we even need an elaborate constitution to achieve that.”