Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, said he has secured the backing of Nigerian governors for the ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
This followed a meeting with the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), in Abuja, Wednesday night, where Kalu, who was accompanied by the principal officers of the House, revealed that the governors were receptive to the proposed amendments.
The Deputy Speaker, who also chairs the Constitution Review Committee of the House emphasised the vital role of governors as heads of sub-national governments.
He recognised the importance of updating them on parliamentary progress to prepare the State Houses of Assembly for voting on significant issues in the Constitution amendment.
The deputy speaker also told the governors that the constitution review committee has received 161 areas requiring thematic review of the 1999 constitution
”The governors are major stakeholders in this country and without the federating units, there is no Nigeria. If you ignore them, the wheel of progress toward realising this objective will be slowed down.
“And we consider it important to come and engage with them and bring them up to speed, taking them through our work plan. What we have achieved so far and where we are headed. We had a robust discussion.”
He also said the governors made beautiful contributions and they were in support of the constitution review.
His words: ”We also informed them that we are going to be visiting their states and geopolitical zones to get the opinion of the public in various zones about the thematic areas of the constitution we are looking at.
”We informed them that we have received over 161 areas to amend in the constitution and we are going to give them the breakdown in the coming engagements. This won’t be the First and last engagement. We are going to have a couple of engagements.
“This is how we want to do it, differently from how it has been done. From the beginning we want them to have input and we have requested for them to send us an anchor person, like a liaison officer.”
On the tax reforms currently before the National Assembly, he said, ”To be fair to the governors, they did not dwell on tax reforms, it was generally about the constitution. They spoke on the local government reforms, what we are looking at. They were open-minded towards all the areas we are trying to look at in the Constitution.”
Chuks Okocha
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