Tension flared at Wednesday’s Senate plenary session as two federal lawmakers, Senator Kabiru Marafa, of the All Nigerians Peoples Party (ANPP) representing Zamfara Central and Senator Paulinus Igwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), from Ebonyi Central, almost got into a fight over the State of the Nation Address Bill.The rancour occurred in the hallowed chamber over the State of the Nation Address Bill which President Goodluck Jonathan has refused to sign into law.
The State of the Nation Address Bill, among others, will empower the lawmakers to compel the President to appear before the National Assembly to deliver the address once a year.
In a letter to the Senate President, Senator David Mark early last week, President Jonathan said that his assent to the Bill would be subject to the incorporation of some fundamental amendments that would bring the Bill in conformity with the dictates of the Constitution, especially the discretion conferred on the President by Section 67 of the Constitution.
Jonathan wrote: “I am inclined to accede to the Bill subject to the incorporation of some fundamental amendments proposed to bring the Bill in conformity with the dictates of the Constitution”.
President Jonathan in the letter noted that the Constitution had made ample provisions for such an address and that the new Bill would amount to a duplication of legislation.
He, therefore, proposed a redrafting of Clause 1 (2) to make it more flexible by substituting it to read: “The State of the Nation Address shall be delivered to a joint sitting of the National Assembly within 30 days of the commencement of the legislative year”.
For Clause 3, which purports to empower the National Assembly to summon the President, where he decides not to make the address, the President said it should be substituted with a clause that conforms to the language of the Constitution.
According to him, it should rather read that: “Where for any reason the President is unable to present an address in accordance with Section 1 of this Act, the President shall in writing, inform the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives and either designate the Vice President to present the address on his behalf or transmit to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the text of the Address”.
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