The senate Committee on the Review of 1999 Constitution has indicated that the 2014 recommendations of the National Conference would be useful resources for the ongoing effort to review the 1999 constitution.
Chairman of the committee who is deputy President of the Senate Senator Ovie Omo-Agege gave the indication in his opening at the two-day national public hearing of the Constitution Review in Abuja.
He said, the yearnings of Nigerians were clear to the Committee, adding that, experts who are non-partisan have been assembled to study the Conference recommendations as well as the ruling All Progressives Congress’s Committee on True Federalism.
Omo-Agege said the Senate would handle the task of Constitution review with genuine intention, a development he said allowed public participation in the ongoing process.
The chairman asserted that all the memoranda submitted will receive attention with a view to picking what would further unite the nation and create economic and social prosperity.
“In addition to the memoranda the committee has received on a broad range of issues, we have also studied and engaged a select group of competent and non-partisan consultants to further examine specific recommendations from the reports of the 2014 National Conference and the All-Progressives Congress (APC) Committee on True Federalism requiring constitution amendment for implementation.
“The Committee has also revisited some of the bills in past constitution amendment exercises which did not pass the hurdles of concurrence with the House of Representatives, ratification by State Houses of Assembly and Presidential assent,” he said.
“We have painstakingly re-examined those bills and reintroduced some of the proposals we deem beneficial to our people.
“We are looking at them to determine at what stage of the process they fell off the list and the reasons thereof, with a view to improving on them to suit the demands of our time and ensuring that they do not suffer the same fate.”
He noted with optimism that the zonal public hearings which were held at twelve locations in the six geopolitical zones have further deepened the exercise as being people oriented.
According to him, the parliament took cognisance of the will of the people as the foundation of any democracy anywhere in the world, hence, they would strive to carry the people along till the final stage when Nigeria will eventually have a workable Constitution.
