NIGERIA: Drafting A Constitution That Keeps Army In The Barracks

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Remi Oyo

ABUJA, Nov 19 1998 (IPS) - Nigerians will for the fourth time since independence in 1960 attempt to draw a constitution that will give democracy a chance and keep the military where it belongs, in the barracks.

The draft constitution, currently under debate, is expected to serve as an effective antidote to future seizure of power by the army.

The debate is being coordinated by a 24-member committee, headed by 58 year-old Niki Tobi of the Federal Court of Appeal in the capital Abuja.

The debate began in earnest this week with a call for memoranda on the provisions of the document which should guide and protect the country’s fourth attempt at democracy.

According to Tobi, all aspects of the draft prepared by the Constitutional Conference in 1995 under the late Head of State Sani Abacha were open for debate. Under the draft constitution, which rescinded the ban on political activity in 1995, the government announced a three-year programme for transition to civilian rule, whereby a new president was to be inaugurated on Oct. 1 this year.

However, only five political parties qualified for registration by the authorities and their decision to put up Abacha as their sole candidate all but confirmed suggestions that they were somehow linked to, or manipulated by his regime.

Tobi’s Constitution Debate Coordinating Committee expects that the military will be among the plethora of national groups that will attend the special hearing slated for Abuja on Dec 8-9.

Nigeria has had military regimes for about three-quarters of the country’s 38 years of independence. Elections in 1993 were to have ushered in a civilian government, but the results were annulled by the military and man widely regarded as having won the polls, Moshood Abiola, was jailed and charged with treason after proclaiming himself the winner.

Current anti-military sentiments suggest that the debate will feature suggestions on how to place the army in the barracks. Of the nine governments Nigeria has had since independence, only two have been elected. Both were scuttled by military coups.

The military itself appears well aware of these sentiments. In a lengthy speech this week to mark this year’s Chief of Army Staff Conference, a member of the Provisional Ruling Council, Maj-Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi acknowledged that politics and governance were not legitimate roles of the military.

The military’s subordinate role to the constitution “precludes it in absolute terms from the plotting of coups d’etat or any attempts to undermine civil authority,” said Bamaiyi, who is Nigeria’s chief of army staff.

“Those of us who no longer wish to play the role assigned to us by the constitution or in accordance with the existing service regulation are quite free to leave the profession”, Bamaiyi said at the conference in the Nigerian town of Jos.

The Army Chief reminded his troops: “While we remain in uniform, the society rightly expects us to obey and respect the constitution”.

Ten cities have been selected to host public hearings on the draft constitution which many say may be a rehearse of the 1979 constitution plus what is now known as the ‘untested’ areas.

Justice Tobi expects the public to contribute in debate considered by key government officials as one of the hallmarks of the Abdulsalami Abubakar government, through enthusiastic participation in the public hearings and the organisation of workshops and seminars.

“Nigeria is once again in a transition from military to democratic politics,” Tobi stressed.

He believes that the “constitution marks the starting point in this important enterprise and the Committee calls on all Nigerians at home and abroad to seize the opportunity of this debate to be part of the constitution-making process”.

The Appeal Court Judge assured Nigerians that the draft up for debate is the authentic one submitted in June 1995 by the Constitutional Conference which wrote it.

Controversy dogged this draft, already published in more than 10 newspapers, even before the Conference began sitting in 1994 at the height of the national opposition to the annulment of the 1993 Presidential election and the arrest of its winner, the late Abiola.

Regardless of the opposition, the Conference sat for one year to produce the document. Unconfirmed reports insist the document might have been doctored after its June 1995 submission to government to suit the whims of the dictatorship of Abacha.

The nationwide debates are likely to reflect such cynicism, albeit on small scale because Nigerians see the adoption of a constitution as the first critical step to a return to democracy.

Tobi’s committee has only up to Dec. 31 to submit a fresh draft to government for consideration and approval of the Provisional Ruling Council.

Among the issues up for consideration, noted Tobi, is the principle of rotation and zoning of public offices contained in the draft to allay fears of political domination and marginalisation of groups.

In the 38 years of the country’s independence the issue of domination by one ethnic group over another especially in economic and political spheres has dominated public discourse sometimes to the point of national distraction.

The fear of domination is thought by political analysts to be at the bottom of recent intra-ethnic violence particularly in the Niger Delta, hub of Nigeria’s oil wealth.

The government, according to sources in Abuja, is looking for the best way of cultivating a sense of belonging in all segments of the society, through political engineering without foresaking the ideals of democracy.

Untested area of the draft, which were not included in earlier constitutions, concerns the merits and demerits of the provision on multiple Vice-Presidents.

President Abubakar sought to aid the debate last week when he asked: “how feasible is the idea of (multiple Vice-presidents) given our experience with the operation, during the second republic (1979-83) of a single Vice-President and Deputy Governor under the 1979 constitution?”.