From: Voci Bawomanh
Date: November 11, 2012
My view on the ongoing Constitution Review
The move to review and amend the Nigeria Constitution is a welcome development and a noble exercise. Yes, there are issues relating to corporate existence, development and advancement of Nigeria and Nigerian ethnic nationalities that we must address. However, no level or degree of law, constitution, decree, edit, promulgation, can guarantee or usher in national and local progress if the law is never applied, applied incorrectly, applied subjectively or partially or disregarded.
In the larger picture, Nigeria does not have big constitutional issue but rather a constitutional application problem otherwise called the lack of the Rule of Law. A constitution does not worth the paper it is written on if it is neither applied nor applied impartially. In Nigeria the none application of the existing law, or the partial application of the law, the double standard in the application of the law have bred the mother of all corruptions; the public corruption that have held Nigeria in a primordial state of being. No people, organization , society, nation can achieve any progress if there exist no generally accepted standardized code of conduct or rule to which every member must reference to, live under, judged by and subjected to. To be effective a constitution must be generally and democratically acceptable, respectable, applicable, impartial, and absolute but democratically reviewable and amendable.
Nonetheless, the following issues are some points that I would like the national assemble to address and incorporate in the constitution. Here, I will give only the general overview of the points and not specific constitutional or legal language on the points.
1. Public Corruption and Money Laundry
The act of money laundering, embezzlement, gross misappropriation of public wealth should be codified as treasonable offense to the State; therefore a federal crime. One found guilty of this offense should receive a minimum of life imprisonment that is not subject to presidential or executive pardon. Only the act of Congress can provide pardon for anyone convicted of treason. To be eligible for Congressional pardon the convict must have served no less than 10 years of the life imprisonment and must have or be able to return to the public coffer the whole wealth looted with 20% annual interest on the amount or value of the loot for each year the loot or part of thereof remains in the possession of the looter. To be eligible for congressional pardon the culprit must consent to make live public media apology to the nation and consent never to seek any public office at any government level and must not be involved in any future felonious crime. No plea bargain should be extended to a public official charged with misappropriation of public wealth unless the accused pleads guilty to all charges against him or her; have the means and able to return with interest every penny looted. Yet a looter who receives plea bargain must serve a 5 year minimum prison time for his or her criminal act.
2. Equity and economic fairness to all citizens
The major cause of revolutions, crime, social upheaval and unrest, today and yesteryears anywhere in the globe are gross income inequality between the haves and the have-not. For social order, the gap between the rich and the poor must be manageable especially in Nigeria where majority of the rich people are either current, former public officials or people who have or had a family member, friend, in public office or connected to current or former public official or officials. So to address income inequality and foster social mobility of all the citizenry, owners, CEOs, directors, members of the Congress, members of the federal and state executive cabinet, managers, director, senior management personnel in both public and private organizations, agencies, departments, businesses, must not earn annual income that is more than certain percentage of the annual income of that earned by the lowest paid employee or employees in the organization, business or agency. As a result of this pay structure, in any organization, business or agency the highest earning personnel or employees will earn no more than certain percentage of the income of the next level of employee classification below and this level will in turn earn no more than certain percentage of income of the employee classification below and so on and so forth. The actual percentage figure or number difference between income level classifications shall be determined by the constitutional review panel. My opinion is that the highest paid employee, in the public sector should gross (bonuses, benefits, allowances included) no more than 40 fold of that earned by the least paid employee in the agency. And no more than 60 fold for the highest paid employee or the CEO of a private organization or business and 200 Fold for the owner out of which 100 fold will be for capital reinvestment. The pay scale of the President and Governors should be one and 2/3 of that of the national and states’ assembles respectively.
3. Subversion
Any person, persons, members of an organization, or agency that forcibly overthrows a duly elected government shall be tried for treason against the Nigerian State; if convicted such person or persons shall be sentenced to death. No decree, law, edict, promulgation, congressional or executive order will annul, suspend, or void any part of provision of this legal code. If it becomes necessary to rescue the country from subversive act of those entrusted with continued corporate, peaceful and sovereign existence of the Nigeria nation, the coup plotters must immediately, within 48 hours handover and surrender power to Council of Elders, to be called the Provisional Congressional Council, PCC. The PCC shall comprise of representative of elder statesmen (# to be determined by constitutional review council) from every ethnicity in Nigeria. The Hausa/Fulani, Ibo, and Yoruba ethnic groups will each have representative in PCC equal to the sum of the representatives from the other ethnic groups combined. For purposes of this provision and for the recognition of our cherished diversity, the Nigerian Government must officially recognize, document and catalog all the distinct ethnicities in the country. To protect the provisions of this code, the National Assemble can go into Defense Pack with any one, two or more of the powerful democratic nations.
PCC shall within 48hours to 9 months hand power back to the deposed government. Where there exist no constitutional credible democratically elected government, person, or persons to hand over power to, the PCC shall organize, supervise, conduct fresh election and hand over power to a democratically elected government within 9 months from the time the PCC came into existence. All members of the PCC have equal voting power and 2/3 majority vote will be required to reach any decision. If PCC fails to reach consensus on any particular matter the Supreme Court will determine or decide on that particular matter. The PCC will co-ordinate with the judiciary for speedy court trial of the coup plotters.
In addition to travel allowance, accommodation, food and medical allowances PCC members shall receive national minimum wage for each month it is in existence or half the prevailing salary paid to members of the last House of Representatives without the added benefits or allowances.
4. Creation of States and local Governments, congressional representation and federal allocations.
States and local governments should be created base on population of people in an area. However since area population is dynamic and constant state and local government creation is impracticable; congressional districts or representation should be used to balance, compensate and remedy population shifts. As such federal allocation should be apportioned base on congressional districts in a local government or states. To achieve a reasonable state, local government creation and congressional district apportionment and federal allocation a national ID card backed by biometrics is an imperative. Until such a time we secure reliable national ID card, for equity today, each of the existing 6 geo-political zones in the country should have 7 states each; I am not a fan of more states or local government but I also recognize that existing state cannot be scraped for parity hence a 7 state per zone remedy is what is achievable now for equity among the zones. After the national ID, more local government may or may not be necessary since federal allocation will then be based on congressional districts (which in turn are based on actual population) in a local government or state. Local government must be fiscally independent from the state. The federal electoral commission must manage local government elections. Only a federal court should have the power to remove an elected local government official if found guilty of corruption, abuse of authority, or felonious offense. Any citizen from the local government, the State Governor, local government council, state assemble or member, can bring legal action against local government official suspected of committing any of the impeachable offenses. Any frivolous charge or accusation against any public official is a libel offense and could result to fine, mandatory imprisonment on the accuser and no less than $100k monetary compensation for the accused if acquitted. This model of legal recourse for public official suspected of corruption and or felony crime can be used at the federal and state levels; this then brings us to immunity clause.
5. Immunity clause
The immunity clause for elected public servants should be limited. The president, governor, members of parliament should not have immunity from prosecution for corruption, bribery, and money laundry, abuse of authority, subversions, and felonious acts. The national and states assemblies can institute impeachment action against a president or governor respectively suspected of having committed any of the above act. NBA, any nationally registered none-for-profit organizations and comparable states’ organizations, institutions of higher learning, anti-fraud agencies, courts, federal ministry or agency, and state ministry or agency can bring legal action against a seating president, governor and or a parliamentarian, state or federal official if such entity believes that the president, governor, a parliamentarian have committed any of the impeachable offenses. False, frivolous accusations against any public official is a libel offense; anyone, group, institution, agency found guilty of libel should receive a mandatory jail term, and or monetary fine. The victim of libel shall receive a monetary compensation of not less than $100k plus all legal cost.
6. Judiciary and Anti-graft appointment.
The President shall appoint the Judges of the courts and the senate shall confirm or reject the appointment using among many criterions; among these are the vital measures as, the nominee’s competence for the job and experience, existing civil service appointment practice, the integrity and honesty of the nominee, no past history of public corruption or felonious acts, and the least criterion, the appointment’s reflection of federal character and gender equity. Once appointed and confirm only congressional action and court order can remove a court judge or anti-graft official suspected to have been involved in corruption, and or in other impeachable offenses. Once appointed a court judge should serve until retirement, voluntary resignation, or impeachment for impeachable offences. Once appointed an anti-graft official should serve out the time agree upon during the nomination and confirmation process even if there is a change in administration; unless retirement knocks, voluntary resignation, or the official is found to have committed impeachable offense or offenses?
7. Public Office and Asset declaration by elected officials
Any Nigerian seeking public political office must declare under oath his, hers, and family asset held in the last 10 years following the period he or she seeks the public office. Family here include, wives, son, daughter, mother, father, sister brother. False oath declaration is a felonious, impeachable and imprison-able offense. An official leaving public office should also declare asset as set above and must consent to further asset declaration any time within the next 10 years after leaving public office. No Nigerian seeking public office or holding one should maintain foreign bank account, invest or conduct profit oriented business activities outside Nigeria. If for-profit foreign business exists prior, the individual must place such business in absolute blind trust for the period he or she is in public service; handing such business over to family member would not suffice. To fight corruption, money laundering and capital flight of stolen public wealth, Nigeria can seek bilateral agreement with the community of nations that requires any Nigerian depositing and or transacting business over $30k at a time and $100k in a year to complete FDBTf form; Foreign Deposit and Business Transaction form, with the foreign partner, business, financial institution, organization, or agency.
Except the President no public official should seek foreign medical, training service if such service can be obtained in Nigeria.
8. Citizenship, state of origin and residency.
‘State of Origin’ should be eliminated from the federal and states’ civil service questionnaires and replaced with ‘Place of Birth.’ Length of residency in a state should be one of the criterions that confer state citizenship to a resident of a state. Unless a Nigerian declares citizenship to another state other than the one he or she resides in, a Nigerian who has maintained residency in any state of the federation for a period 24 months in a three year period should be conferred with citizenship of that state if he or she so chooses. If a Nigerian declares citizenship to another state other than the one he or she currently resides in he or she should be conferred with the citizenship of the state he or she so chooses. No Nigerian should have dual state citizenship at one given time.
However, citizenship to a state or to a country for that matter only makes sense if it is provable and verifiable through documentation; therefore the importance of national ID card backed with biometrics cannot be over emphasized.
9. Formula; Revenue Sharing;
Because the present structural partition of Nigeria into states and local councils is inequitable, unfair, inaccurate and meaningfully baseless, the allocation of federal fund based on the current structural must be scraped and replace with per capita structure. That is, federal allocation should be based on the number of people on the number of congressional district which in turn must reflect the number of people in the state. The National assemble must decide the minimum number of people that will constitute a congressional district. This minimum number will then determine the number of congressional districts a state gets. Not only will this formula eliminate the incessant demand for more states and local councils but it will encourage local public officials to cultivate the culture of people; that is, encourage and give states the incentive to welcome and protect people in their territories since more people means more federal fund. For this arrangement to be feasible a national identification scheme backed with biometrics is indispensible. And this is in addition to so many benefits derivable from a credible National ID Scheme. Because population is dynamic phenomenon, a headcount or census every eight to ten years must be conduct so as to adjust the number of congressional districts per area or per state. The number of congressional districts per states also accords the state the number of congressional delegations for the Federal House and Senate.
10. Security and Police Authority.
State and Local governments should recruit, train and maintain their own police force that meets national standard in police training and code of conduct in law enforcement. Acquisition of certain equipment and or ammunition by the local or state police authorities must receive approval from a relevant federal authority. Federal police should have authority over state and local police in such issues as subversion, terrorism, kidnapping, public corruption, bribery, citizen’s civil right violations, immigration, crimes across states’ lines, crime committed in a federal facility, and police riots in the states and local councils. Local, state and federal police shall have joint and equal authority over election related crimes; however if the election crime ends up in court the federal police will lead the investigation and prosecution unless it delegates such responsibility to the local or the state police. The Federal Government shall bear the cost of joint federal and state investigation and prosecution of joint jurisdictional offenses. Kidnapping and armed robbery involving the death of a citizen other the perpetrator of the crimes shall constitute a federal crime.
11. Political violence and assassination
The Be Your Brother’s Keeper, Law
If one, two or more of candidates for a particulars public office for Local government council chairmanship, governorship, state and federal house, senate, presidency dies mysterious of foul play, or assassination, all other candidates vying for the same public office vied by the deceased will be automatically suspended and or disqualified from contesting the position/office pending the outcome of an investigation surrounding the death of the deceased candidate.
If through investigation the culprit for the assassination is uncovered, candidates not implicated or not culpable will be allowed to continue contesting the public office and candidates implicated and or culpable will be barred from seeking any public office and prosecuted.
If there is not a enough time between the completion of investigation and the date of the election for which the deceased was canvassing then all the candidates vying for the same position the deceased was running for will be suspended/disqualified indefinitely. And no election will be held for that office for which the deceased was running for until the next office term; and this is the basis of the Be- your- brother’s keeper law.
12. Heinous Crimes and Punishment
Kidnapping(please define what constitute Kidnapping) involving the death of the victim of the crime, family members of the victim, friends of the victim, law enforcement personnel, crime solvers or negotiators, innocent persons within the vicinity of primary, secondary or tertiary time and space of the commission of crime of kidnapping will receive a sentence of death. And all ransoms extorted by the kidnapper must be recovered by all means necessary, including the confiscation of the kidnapper’s liquid cash, bank accounts, properties including the primary place of abode and or landed property. Since making ransom payment is a crime, half of the recovered ransom money shall return to the person or persons that made the ransom payment while the half shall go to the state government and the state government must be used this half to combat crime.
Any person or persons involved and convicted for knowingly holding money, wealth for a kidnapper, or helping a kidnapper hide or launder his or her money or wealth shall receive a prison sentence of not less ten years.
Person or persons making ransom payment to kidnappers shall be punished according to the existing laws.
All other forms of kidnapping not involving deaths as described above shall receive a minimum prison sentence of 25 years without the possibility of parole. And all ransoms extorted by the kidnapper must be recovered by all means necessary, including the confiscation of the kidnapper’s liquid cash, bank accounts, properties including the primary place of abode and or landed property. Since making ransom payment is a crime, half of the recovered ransom money shall return to the person or persons that made the ransom payment while the half shall go to the state government and the state government must be used this half to combat crime.
Armed robbery
Armed robbery (please define what constitute armed robbery) involving the death of the victim of the crime, family members of the victim, friends of the victim, law enforcement personnel, crime solvers or negotiators, innocent persons within the vicinity of primary, secondary or tertiary time and space of the commission of crime of armed robbery will receive a sentence of death. And all money and or property robbed by the armed robber must be recovered by all means necessary, including the confiscation of the armed robber’s liquid cash, bank accounts, properties including the primary place of abode and or landed property. All of the recovered money and or property shall be returned to the person or persons that were robbed.
Any person or persons involved and convicted for knowingly holding money, wealth for an armed robber, or helping an armed robber hide or launder his or her money or wealth shall receive a prison sentence of not less ten years.
Hate crime;
Crime committed against another person, persons or against the property of another because of another’s ethnicity, religion and or sexual orient. Person or persons convicted of hate crime that resulted to the death of the victim or victims will receive a sentence of death. In addition to being responsible to medical expenses and restoration of property of the victims, the offender or offenders must compensate the victim’s family or the next of kin in full, of wages and or income lost by the victim as result of the hate crime.
If an act of hate crime results in injury to the victim or victims and or destruction of the victim’s property the perpetrator shall receive no less than 20 years prison term. In addition to being responsible to medical expenses and restoration of property of the victims the perpetrator must compensate in full, wages and or income lost by the victims as result of the hate crime.
In order to get states and or local councils proactive in fighting hate crimes, once the total cost of hate crime to the victim is determined by the court, the Federal government must ensure that the local council and the State Government of the state where hate crime was committed compensate the victims as stated above. To accomplish compliance here, the Federal Government will withhold part or all of the state and or the local council’s federal allocation. States and local council shall be authorize to recover their allocation (by all means possible) withheld by the federal government from the constituent by whose hate crime the Federal Government confiscated federal allocations for the state or the local governement.
