A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, on Tuesday said the constitution empowered President Goodluck Jonathan to convoke the ongoing National Conference without an approval from the National Assembly.
Falana, a delegate, made this known when he addressed newsmen at the venue of the conference in Abuja.
He said the concern raised in some quarters that the National Assembly did not approve the hosting of the conference was unfounded.
“By virtue of Section 5 of the constitution, the executive powers of the president include convening meetings of this nature to solve problems confronting the country.
“The president has already taken the idea of the conference to the Council of State and they appropriately advised him to go ahead and conduct the confab.
“The constitution also empowers citizens to assemble peacefully and discuss issues that affect their interest. So, why the talk that the conference is not supported by the constitution,” he asked.
He, however, said the National Assembly had a duty to consider legitimate resolutions from the conference in the interest of the country.
“The National Assembly has a duty to take all the interest of Nigerians into consideration.
“If the resolutions from this conference are serious, profound and they address the problems of the country, there is no way why the National Assembly will not take cognisance of them,” Falana said.
Similarly, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in a telephone interview that the approval of the National Assembly was not required to bestow legitimacy on the Confab.
“The constitution allows Nigerians to gather together to associate with each other as group and to discuss and express their opinion. There is no doubt about that.
“In fact as far as I am concerned, you do not even need the president to constitute the conference, just as we do not also need the National Assembly at the preliminary stage of the conference.
“At the end of the conference, hopefully, there will be a draft resolution in addition to a possible referendum which approves it.
“At that point, the National Assembly will have no choice than to adopt it as the decision of the people,’’ Sagay said.
According to him, Section 14, paragraph 2 of the 1999 Constitution clearly outlined how sovereignty belongs to the people, not National Assembly, and not even to the president.
On his part, Dr Jonathan Obaje, another delegate, said there was the need for an approval from the National Assembly to forestall any future collisions of interests.
“There has to be an executive bill sent to the National Assembly to mandate this kind of talk, there is none at this moment and that leaves some of us with reservation.
“I will have expected delegates to impress it on the president to obtain the mandate of the National Assembly before we commence serious discussions.
“We need a legal framework to mandate this National Conference to do that we must report back to the National Assembly or get the resolutions subjected to a referendum by Nigerians.
“As at today, there is no legal framework for this national conference,” Obaje said. (NAN)