Constitutional Amendment: National Assembly To Engage Governors, Speakers

The National Assembly is to engage governors of the 36 states of the federation to ensure smooth endorsement of the ongoing process of constitutional amendment by the Houses of Assembly.

The lawmakers are also to sustain the current engagement with Speakers of the Houses of Assembly to ensure that they do not truncate the amendment process.

Both the Senate and House of Representatives, last Tuesday, voted on 68 different Bills aimed at altering the Constitution.

Twelve of the Bills, including those that deal directly or indirectly with women’s rights, failed at the House of Representatives.

Other Bills, such as those on financial and administrative autonomy for local government and recognising them as a full tier of government, financial autonomy for the state legislature and state judiciary, among others, sailed through in both chambers.

But the Bills that sailed through the mandatory two-thirds of the National Assembly will now be sent to the states’ Houses of Assembly for concurrence before they are sent for Presidential assent.

House of Representatives spokesman Benjamin Kalu said the process of engagement with the state legislators, which started before the reports were laid before both chambers, would continue until the entire process is completed.

He said: “The chairman of the ad hoc committee and the members have been meeting with the Speakers of the 36 Houses of Assembly. So, there is a relationship between the Federal and the states on this constitutional amendment already.”