The National Assembly Joint Committee on Constitution Review has received 55 proposals for the creation of new states and 278 requests for the establishment of additional local government areas from various interest groups across the country.
The committee also received two requests for boundary adjustments and 69 bills seeking amendments to various constitutional provisions.
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The Chairperson of the Committee, Barau Jibrin, disclosed this in a statement on Friday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ismail Mudashir.
The statement indicated that the the committee will conduct a clause-by-clause review of all proposals during its two-day retreat in Lagos, which begins today and ends on Saturday.
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“It has been a long journey to bring the Senate and the House of Representatives Constitution Amendment proposals that cut across several sections and dealing with different subject matters.
“We have been in this process for the past two years, engaging our constituents, critical stakeholders, institutions, civil society organisations and interest groups; in town hall meetings, interactive sessions and public hearings, harvesting and synthesising views and perspectives which has ultimately culminated to what we have here today – 69 bills, 55 state creations requests, two boundary adjustment and 278 Local Government creation requests,” the statement reads.
Several Nigerians have criticised some provisions of the 1999 Constitution, which has been in use since the country’s return to democratic rule that year. The criticisms came in the light of the rapid technological, social, and political developments in Nigeria.
Since 1999, the National Assembly has altered the document five times, though some items proposed for amendment were defeated at the state legislatures
Over the years, the National Assembly has spent huge sums on constitutional review exercises, budgeting separately for it.
The current review exercise began with a retreat in Kano and proceeded to hold simultaneous zonal public hearings in each of the six geopolitical zones, which ended in July.
The Committee has pledged to complete the process and transmit the final proposals to state Houses of Assembly before the end of the year.
At the conclusion of the zonal public hearing in July, the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, said some of the issues discussed apart from requests for new states and LGAs were proposals for the creation of state police, transfer of items from the Exclusive to the Concurrent Legislative List, electoral reforms such as independent candidacy, and budgetary reforms aimed at fixing deadlines for presidents and governors to present annual appropriation bills.
Committee promise again to transmits reports to state assemblies
In the statement, Mr Jibrin, who is also the deputy senate president, reiterated that the committee would conclude the exercise and transmit it to state assemblies before end of the year.
“It is not going to be a simple task to achieve within two days, but I believe we can do it, especially as we have promised Nigerians that we will deliver the first set of amendments to the State Houses of Assembly before the end of this year.
“I believe we can deliver on this promise if we engage the bills and the issues with open minds. I acknowledge we represent constituents with diverse ethnic, religious and socio-economic cleavages through different political platforms, but the Constitution is the grundnorm for Nigerian citizens and nationhood which we must approach with patriotism and nationalism as higher shared goals,” he added.
Mr Jibrin, who also serves as the first deputy speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, urged members of the committee to work collaboratively and focus on what best serves Nigerians.
“We are seated here as one committee. There should be no “we” and “them”; we should be guided by the interests of Nigerians. I wish all of us a very fruitful deliberation and hope for recommendations that will meet the approval threshold of the provisions of section 9 of the Constitution,” he said.
