Reps to prioritise electoral reforms in constitutional amendment

The House of Representatives has stated that it will prioritise issues of local government, electoral and judicial reforms in amending the 1999 Constitution.

Deputy Speaker of the House, Rep. Idris Ahmed Wase, made this known at a retreat organised for members of the House Ad hoc Committee on Constitution Review on Monday, March 22, in Abuja.

Wase said it was evident that the country was passing through serious challenges as a result of the local government system not working as it should.

The federal lawmaker stressed the need for the house to pay special attention to the named issues as they embarked on amending the constitution.

According to him, lawmakers have the opportunity to write their names in gold by ensuring that they do everything possible to give Nigerians a people-oriented constitution.

He said that a review of the electoral process was particularly important to give Nigerians a direction in its democratic growth.

Wase said that state creation, as well as women’s participation in politics, would also be given special attention by the house committee.

READ ALSO: Gbajabiamia promises speedy electoral reforms

”This is about our nation-building. We have the opportunity to write our names in gold in whatever we are going to do here.

“We should be guided by the fact that Nigeria needs very critical reforms at this very particular time.

“By our own design at the secretariat, we thought we should segment the issues in the country so that we will have them in batches.

“We are not going to have one batch constitutional review like it was done in the past. As issues come, we shall be treating them and we have classified the issues,” he said.

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