BEVERLY HILLS, May 26, (THEWILL) – Nigerians have been assured that the coming Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria would be an all-inclusive document in line with the democratic tenets of developed democracies.
The assurance was given by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie-Omo Agege, while speaking in Bauchi, on Wednesday, at the opening of the North-East Zonal Sitting on the review of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
The Deputy Senate President, who sits as the Chairman of the Constitution review, said that it had taken a long time to review the Constitution due to the fact that in a democracy, it was not always easy to review the Constitution because it had to undergo a lot of processes that must be in line with democratic settings.
Represented by Senator Abubakar Kyari, he explained that the review process was taking the bottom-to-top approach by engaging the public hearings across the country before the national hearing in order to ensure that Nigerians had their inputs well-captured in the new document.
Ovie-Omo Agege assured that all the lapses and holes in the 1999 Constitution as amended would be corrected in order to give every segment of the society a sense of belonging in the scheme of things in the country.
He appealed to Nigerians to make logical submissions in their memoranda.
Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir, in his speech, advocated for the creation of more states and local government areas in the country so that there would be more even development across the country.
The Governor also called for constitutional recognition and roles for the traditional institutions in the country because, according to him, the institution had a vital role in the well-being of the country.
He said that, “There should be fairness and equity in the distribution of the country’s resources. We in Bauchi need additional local government areas, there are states smaller in landmass and population to Bauchi State but are getting more allocations because they have more local government areas than us.”
The Governor added that, “Yhere’s the need for devolution of power because much power is concentrated more at the centre. We need to have a way out of the problems militating against our unity and progress, we need to move ahead in terms of development.”
Bala Mohammed also said that the present three tiers of government, Federal, states and LGAs, should be retained in the new Constitution but states should be allowed to control the natural resources in their various states and remit to the Federal its own share.
In his goodwill message, Chairman, Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria, Abubakar Y Suleiman, commended the move to amend the Constitution, which, he said, had more of military inputs in a democratic dispensation.
He assured that all the 36 State Houses of Assembly were waiting to see how the process would go, declaring that as soon as it got to the stage of concurrence, the states’ assemblies would not hesitate to do the needful.
Suleiman urged that every agitation that was genuine for peace and peaceful coexistence in the country should be accommodated in the new Constitution for good and effective governance saying that, “It will be our pride to have the 2021 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria rather than what it is now, 21 years after the return to a democratic dispensation in the country.”
