HB 338: Federal Character Commission (Establishment, etc.) Act (Amendment) Bill, 2016

Federal Character Commission Act, 2004 (Principal Act)

Federal Character Commission Act (Amendment) Bill 2015 sponsored by Hon. Edward Gyang Pwajok

Section 1(3) –

“The Commission shall not be subject to the direction, control or supervision of any other authority or person in the performance of its functions under this Act other than the President. “

Clause 1 of the Bill seeks to amend Section 1(3) of the Principal Act by replacing the word “President” with “National Assembly”.

Section 3 (1), ( 2), & (5) –

(1) “The chairman and members of the Commission shall hold office for a period of five years in the first instance and for a further term of five years on such terms and conditions as may be specified in their letters of appointment “

(2) “A member may only be removed from office by the President acting on an address supported by two‐thirds majority of the Senate praying that he be so removed for inability to discharge the functions of the office”

(5) “A member shall not while holding office hold any other office of emolument whether in the Federal or State public service”

Clause 2 seeks to amend Section 3 of the Principal Act by deleting subsections 1, 2, and 5, and re-numbering the rest of the subsections

Section 4 (a), (d)(i)&(ii), (e) and (f) have the word “President” appearing in each paragraph.

Section 4 provides for the functions of the Commission

Clause 3 proposes to amend Section 4 of the Principal Act by substituting “President” with “National Assembly”, which appears in paragraphs a, d, i, ii, e and f

Section 5(2) provides for the powers of the Commission

“For the purposes of subsection (1) of this section, the Commission shall have power to take such legal action including the prosecution of any person, whether corporate or unincorporate who, being obliged to comply with the provisions of this Act, fails to do so”.

Clause 4 proposes to amend Section 5 of the Principal Act by deleting the last full stop of subsection (2) after the word “so” and inserting “though”

• “its own legal practitioners;
• external legal practitioners
• attorney-general of the federation or any states or any of their counsel”

Section 13

“The Commission shall not later than three months before the end of each year, submit to the President a report on the activities and the administration of the Commission during the immediately preceding year and shall include in such reports audited accounts of the Commission and the auditor's report thereon”

Clause 5 proposes to amend Section 13 of the Principal Act by substituting “President” with the phrase “National Assembly”, and inserting immediately after the word “activities” “(including the level of compliance by all authorities with the provision of the Act)”

Section 14 (1)

“Information supplied by the Commission shall not be made public by any person except if it is duly authorized by the chairman of the Commission.”

Section 14(2)

“Any person who contravenes the provisions of subsection (1) of this section is guilty of an offence under this Act.”

Clause 6 proposes to amend Section 14 of the Principal Act by deleting subsections (1) & (2), and then re-number subsections (3) & (4) accordingly

Section 15(1) provides –

“Any person who commits an offence under section 14 of this Act is liable on conviction to a fine of N50,000 or to imprisonment for a term of six months or to both such fine and imprisonment.”

Section 15(2) provides –

“Where an offence under this section is committed by a corporate body, any of its directors, managers, officers, employees or partners, recklessly, negligently, willfully acquiesces in the commission of the offence shall jointly and severally be guilty of the offence and liable on conviction to a fine of N100,000 in the case of the corporate body or to a fine of N 50,000 in the case of individual “

Section 15(3) provides –

“Any person, or body corporate or unincorporate who is in persistent breach of the provisions of this Act is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine of N10,000 for every day the offence is committed notwithstanding the fine of N100,000 specified in subsection (1) of this section and in the case of an individual or staff of such body, to imprisonment for a term of two years without an option of a fine.”

Clause 7(a) proposes to substitute N50,000 with not less than N100,000 under Section 15 of the Principal Act, and “6 months” to be substituted with “not less than 6 months”

(b) proposes to substitute N100,000 with “not less than N500,000, & N50,000 is substituted with “not less than N250,000” under Section 15(2) of the Principal Act

(c) proposes to substitute N100,000 with N500,000 under Section 15(3) of the Principal Act

Section 19 defines the “Constitution” as

“Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999”

Clause 8 proposes to amend the definition of the Constitution by adding the words “as amended” after “1999” under Section 19 of the Principal Act