Senate Suspends Plan To Overturn Jonathan’s Veto Over Constitution Amendment

The Senate has suspended its plan to overturn President Goodluck Jonathan’s veto of the amendment of the 1999 Constitution.

Channels Television reports that the Senate had started the process of overturning President Jonathan’s veto as it scheduled the Constitutional Amendment Bill for first reading on the order paper for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Senate has resolved to challenge the order of the Supreme Court which demanded that the status quo be maintained in the disagreement between the President and the Senate over the Amendment of the 1999 Constitution. The President had approached the Supreme Court seeking an end to the move by the Senate to override his veto of some sections of the 1999 Constitution amended by the lawmakers.

Two of the reasons which President Jonathan gave for vetoing the fresh amendments is that the National Assembly infringed on executive powers and also did not comply with the constitutional provisions in the amendment of the Constitution.

The Senate majority leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, however disagreed and blamed the executive for not voicing its concerns earlier.

The Constitution Amendment Bill may suffer the same fate which befell it in the 5th Assembly where the bill was thrown out in one fell swoop by former President Obasanjo.

Although the Senate intends to challenge the order of the Supreme Court, it is not clear how far it can go given the fact that it has less than a month to the expiration of the Seventh Assembly.

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