Members of the National Assembly yesterday voted on the report of its Joint Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bills, 2022, which consisted of 68 bills.

The Senate passed a total of 49 bills out of the 68 considered during voting on the Constitution bills. These included moving prisons, railways and power generation from the Exclusive to Concurrent list.

Also, the federal lawmakers at the end of the exercise, approved financial autonomy for state legislatures, judiciary and local governments (LGs) in the country.

The eight National Assembly had during the amendment carried out on the 1999 Constitution, passed similar bills to empower the LGs, state legislature and the judiciary, but could not scale through when they were transmitted to the state assemblies for concurrence.

YES

• Establishment of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federal Government
• Separation of the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and of the State from the office of the Minister and Commissioner for Justice
• Financial Autonomy for Local Government
• Local Government Administrative Autonomy
• Financial Autonomy of State Legislatures and State Judiciary
• Enforcement of Legislative Summons
• Inauguration of Senators and Members-Elect
• Institutionalization of Legislative Bureaucracy in the Constitution
• Uniform retirement age and pension rights for Judicial Officers
• Hearing in the Process of recommending the removal of Judicial Officers
• Devolution of powers (airports, railways, Correctional Service
• Finger prints, Identification and Criminal Record
• National Grid System
• Removal of Transitional Law-making powers of the Executive
• Time frame for the submission of Ministerial or Commissioner nominees
• Timeline for the presentation of Appropriation Bills
• Membership of the National Security Council to include Presiding Officers of the National Assembly
• Power to summon President and Governors
• Establishment of State Security Council
• Time frame for the conduct of population census
• State of the Nation and State of the State Address
• Composition of the members of the Council of State
• Independent Candidacy

NO

• Gender Bills
• Diaspora Voting
• Expansion of the scope of Executive Immunity
• Affirmative Action
• Procedure of overriding Presidential Veto in Constitution Alteration
• Removal of Presiding Officers
• Inclusion of Value Added Tax on the Exclusive Legislative List
• Defining Acts that constitute torture, inhuman or degrading treatment