The deputies of the Transitional Legislative Assembly met in plenary session this Monday, September 2, 2024. One of the bills on which they were to vote concerned the revision of the constitution. But at the start of the day’s session, the president of the ALT, Dr. Ousmane Bougouma, announced the withdrawal of this law by the government. An initiative that the constitutionalist, Pr. Abdoulaye Soma did not fail to welcome, in his observations on the issue.
Gathered at the base for the vote on three bills, the ALT deputies will finally decide on two of them, namely: the bill authorizing the ratification of the framework agreement and the mandate agreement signed between the BF and the IDB for the financing of the Bobo-Banfora-border of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire and Banfora-Orodara road rehabilitation project; and the one authorizing the loan agreement between Burkina Faso and the BOAD, for the partial financing of the RN4 widening and modernization project including the access road to the Thomas Sankara University (UTS).
The first bill on the agenda, the one revising the constitution, was withdrawn by the government. When asked why this was withdrawn, the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Resources and Fisheries, in charge of animal resources, Amadou Dicko, representing the government, was not very talkative. “I think you will have more information later,” he told journalists.
For his part, Professor Abdoulaye Soma welcomed this withdrawal of the bill. “I congratulate the government for this. And I hope that this withdrawal and the time that the constitutional bill will take to return to the Assembly, if necessary, will allow for further reflection and consultation, to find the best solutions to the objectives that our State must achieve,” he hoped.
Let us recall that during the panel organized by the Burkinabe Society of Constitutional Law (SBDC), on Saturday, January 13, 2024, while speaking on the theme “Constitutional reform and democratic legitimacy”, Pr Soma already regretted the speed with which the modification of the constitution had been carried out, emphasizing in passing that it could have been done under other conditions, while taking into account the deep aspirations of the populations.
“Politically, this revision can be described as quasi-confidential and too accelerated. Quasi-confidential because the council of ministers that announced the draft revision of the constitution surprised everyone. Personally, from the height of my interest in constitutional law, I had never heard of a possible revision of the constitution. While the constitution is not a standard of circumstance, it is not a standard of regime or a standard of person. It is a standard of the people. And to do it, we must ensure that the people are informed, that they have been able to discuss and that they have validated the meaning of this revision. It is not certain that this has been done. In any case, we have not had to engage in debate. This revision is too accelerated, because it must be the first constitutional revision that has been done in less than a month. This is a problem, especially in view of the depth of the reforms that had to be made. It is not due to the number of provisions affected, but to the content of the provisions affected. The reform that was made is substantial to reorient the trajectory of Burkina Faso at certain points. It would have been necessary to give the people time to advise, discuss and exchange on the issue. In my deep conviction, this modification had to go through a referendum because the institutional architecture of a State is built by the people. And for the fundamental modification of this constitution, it was necessary to go back to the owner” he had detailed at the time.
Erwan Compaoré
Lefaso.net
