THE question whether the National Assembly will override the veto of former President Goodluck Jonathan on the Fourth Alteration of the 1999 Constitution was laid to rest yesterday.
Senators of the Seventh National Assembly, at their last session, finally failed to override the former president’s decision.
The upper chamber, which ended the Fourth Session of the Seventh Senate yesterday, decided to postpone the touted veto override.
Although the motion titled: “Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Fourth Alteration) Bill 2015 (SB.547) Veto Override”, was listed as the first business of the upper chamber, it was curiously dumped by the senators.
The item was against the name of the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who was chairman, Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Constitution Review.
Senate Leader Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba moved that the item should be taken in another legislative day.
Unfortunately, another legislative day for the Senate would be the inauguration of the Eight Senate probably on June 9th, 2015.
It is not clear why the Senate decided to defer the veto override to another legislative day. But observers were worried that the billions of naira spent to prosecute the constitution amendment would have been a waste of resources.
Former President Jonathan had, while withholding assent to the Constitution Amendment Bill, claimed that the National Assembly did not follow laid down constitutional procedures in passing the Bill.
The matter later went to the Supreme Court, which asked parties to the suit to settle out of court.
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