CONSTITUTION REVIEW: Reps join Senate, deal even more deadly blow to restructuring

On Thursday, it was the turn of the House of Representatives to undertake the clause-by-clause debate of proposed amendments to the 1999 Constitution. The House fared worse than the Senate on a number of significant areas that are associated with aspects of the restructuring of the country.

Procedurally, two thirds of each house of the National Assembly is required to get constitutional amendments passed. By implication, while the senate needs at least 73 votes to get each amendment approved, the house requires at least 240 votes.

The senate had on Wednesday rejected amendment proposals on devolution of powers, state creation and boundary adjustment, deletion of the Land Use Act, as well as citizenship and indegeneship, drawing ire from sections of the country that had long advocated for structural changes to the country.

They had expected these amendments to scale through if only as a consolation for the absence of core issues of restructuring such as fiscal autonomy of federating units from the final review, and possibly serve as a foundation for more fundamental changes in the form of wholesale restructuring in the future.

Read also: RESTRUCTURING: Senate’s deadly blow set to heighten agitations in S’East, S’South

The house had, in an even more blunt rejection of amendments tied to restructuring, voted down deletion of Land Use Act from the constitution, devolution of powers, state creation and boundary adjustment, as well as citizenship and indigeneship amendments.

It even went further to reject some important amendments passed by the senate such as electoral reform for local government, as well as separation of the office of attorney-general at state and federal level, from office of the minister/commissioner for justice.

Political watchers will be waiting to see what the final compromise position will be when both houses meet again to harmonize amendments. Many will also be keen to know what the final amendment document will look like after passing through the state assemblies across the country.

Regardless of the eventual outcome however, what is sure is that, on the evidence of the total amendments passed, the clamour for restructuring will continue and likely even more intensely, as many believe a unique opportunity to address its core issues has been missed by the National Assembly.

Below is a breakdown of the amendments considered by the house on Thursday:

RipplesNigeria ….without borders, without fears

Click here to download the Ripples Nigeria App for latest updates

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now