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Constitution Amendment: Senate to vote on thematic areas in July – Omo-Agege

Omo-Agege

*Says 1999 Constitution most criticised

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

Senators in the upper legislative chamber are going to vote on the 16 thematic areas highlighted in the 1999 Constitution amendment process before the National Assembly go on recess in July.

Deputy President of the Senate and Chairman, Constitution Review Committee, Sen. Ovie Omo – Agege gave this assurance on Monday at an interactive session with the media on the zonal public hearing on the constitution amendment process.

Omo -Agege who allayed the fears in certain quarters that the lawmakers may influence the decisions of Nigerians at the public hearing, said each senator can only vote once in favour or against any of the issues listed in the amendment bill.

He said both the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan and the senator representing Nasarawa West, Abdullahi Adamu are entitled to their opinions on the issue of restructuring and not speaking for the senate, hence, their views should not be the basis for preempting the outcome of the constitution amendment process.

He, however assured Nigerians that their views will be heard by the Committee and therefore called on the citizenry “to effectively engage the process and present their demands or recommendations for consideration by the National Assembly.

“Democracy is a process of consultation and constructive engagement, so let us all leverage on this platform to build the country of our dream.”

He said efforts at alteration of the 1999 Constitution are in line with the legislative agenda of the 9th National Assembly.

Speaking on the peculiarities of 1999 Constitution, he said it is the most enduring Constitution in the country since the Independence Constitution of 1960, having lasted 22 years, and still counting.

The second aspect, he said is that there is perhaps no other Constitution that has received as many and diverse criticisms as the 1999 Constitution.

“These have come from Civil Society Groups, Socio-Cultural groups, regional organisations, professional bodies, ethnic nationalities, other pressure groups, as well as individuals. These criticisms, like I said, are varied and widespread.

“They include issues of adequate representativeness of the people of Nigeria by the Constitution, issues of federalism, devolution of powers, socio-economic rights, liberty for persons and gender equality among others.”

He commended the resilience of Nigerians that in spite of these protests and agitations, the Constitution has lingered.

He said when the Committee constituted in February 2031 began work, there were about 32-header 1999 Constitutional Alteration Bills but were streamlined to a 13-point frame of reference, to which it requested memoranda from all.

“By the time the window for receiving these memoranda closed, the Committee had received over 250 memoranda.

The memoranda have been analysed and the Committee have held several consultations and meetings to deliberate on the process and submissions in preparation for the Public hearings at the national and zonal levels.

Following from the analysis of the memoranda submitted, the issues have increased to sixteen as listed.

They are; Gender Equality for Women, The Federal Structure and Power devolution, Local Government / Local Government Autonomy, Public Revenue, Fiscal Federalism and Revenue, The Nigeria Police and the Nigerian Security Architecture, Comprehensive Judicial Reforms and Electoral Reforms to Strengthen INEC to deliver transparently credible, free and fair elections.

Others are; Socio-Economic and Cultural Rights as contained in Chapter 2 of the Constitution, Strengthening the Independence of Oversight Institutions and Agencies created by the Constitution, Residency and Indigene Provisions, Immunity of Persons, The National Assembly and State Creation.

Omo – Agege said the Committee is embarking on public hearings at the 6 geo-political zones and at the national level “to further create opportunity for citizens to make inputs into the amendment process on any of the issues listed above or wish to present, introduce or promote new issues that will promote good governance and unity of the country.”

The hearing will take place in two centers in each of the 6-geo-political zones simultaneously on Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th May 2021 while there will also be a National Public hearing in Abuja on Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th of June 2021 to give opportunity to those especially, government agencies and other stakeholders who could not attend the zonal hearings.

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Ihesiulo Grace

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