The 10th National Assembly has begun reviewing 69 constitutional amendment bills, including proposals for 55 new states and 278 local councils.
Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, who also chairs the Senate Committee on Constitution Review, made this known at the opening of a two-day joint retreat of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on the Review of the 1999 Constitution held in Lagos.
Jibrin said the Legislature aims to submit the first amendments to state Assemblies before year-end.
“It has been a long journey to bring the Senate and the House of Representatives’ Constitution Amendment proposals that cut across several sections and deal with different subject matters”, he said.
The Deputy Senate President urged lawmakers to work towards fulfilling their promise of transmitting the first set of amendments to the state Houses of Assembly before the 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,” he added.
While stressing the need for patriotism and unity in the review exercise, Barau, who also serves as the First Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, urged participants to avoid divisive tendencies.
“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.
Efforts to amend Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution have historically faced significant hurdles, largely due to the complex process involved and the requirement for concurrence from at least two-thirds of the 36 state Houses of Assembly.
Several previous amendment attempts have stalled over political disagreements, regional interests, and issues of resource control, state creation, and devolution of powers.
The last major constitution amendment effort, initiated by the Ninth National Assembly, succeeded in passing some key bills, such as those on financial autonomy for state legislatures and the Judiciary; but many others, including those on state police and local government autonomy, failed to scale through due to lack of consensus.
Political observers say that while the current review exercise signals renewed political will, the multiplicity of proposals, particularly on the creation of new states and local governments, could again test the unity of the federation and the ability of lawmakers to balance national aspirations with practical governance realities.
