Nonsochukwu Uwa, Owerri with Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Renowned lawyer and elder statesman, Chief Mike Ahamba, SAN, has said that contrary to the erroneous thinking in some quarters, the National Assembly is vested with enormous powers by the Constitution more than the President.
Ahamba who made the assertion in Owerri while fielding questions from newsmen after the launch of his book, Getting it Right for Nigeria, however, regretted that the National Assembly, most times failed to utilise the enormity of powers at its disposal because of political and ethnic sentiments.
The legal luminary also contended that the thinking that the Constitution could not be altered by the National Assembly does not hold water as provisions had already been made on how the Constitution could be amended by members of the National Assembly.
According to him: “The National Assembly is the most powerful body in the country, and it has powers to make laws for peace order and good governance.
“I have said it on several occasions that the Constitution was not made by people who expected that it could be amended at any point but in that same Constitution, we have ways and means of amending it. The constitution provides for how we can do it only that we are just lazy.
“We are living in breach. People will sit in their armchairs and say the powers of the President are too much. But it’s not true. The power is in the National Assembly but because of political and ethnic bias they don’t want to do their job.
“If the President gets rough, the constitution has said how he can be curtailed but when the thing comes to the House, then party and ethnic interest will come in. It’s not the President.
“There is nothing the President does without approval from the National Assembly. If they don’t approve, what happens? There was a time when the National Assembly refused to approve the appointment of somebody. I think it was Ibrahim Magu of the EFCC and the man remained in office. That was an impeachable offense but the National Assembly felt so quiet about it. It was an impeachable behaviour by the President but NASS chickened out.”
Ahamba expressed concern over political developments in the country and warned that the National Assembly has to sit up.
On why he wrote the book, he said: “I wrote those things at the time they were happening and the way they happened. I found out that this situation has continued to be the same. It is all about the activities in Nigeria from 1980 to 2018. I have said it in this country, we have a constitutional problem.”
