There
was a drama on Friday at the sitting of the Senate committee on the
review of the 1999 Constitution in Lagos when the National Chairman,
African Renaissance Party (ARP), Alhaji Yahaya Ndu and Wale Ogunade of
Voters Awareness Initiative (VAI) told the committee that they were
wrong in trying to review the constitution as they had no right to do
so.
Both Ndu and Ogunade, who were acknowledged by a section of the
people who gathered at the event, which took place at the Airport Hotel,
Ikeja, spoke based on their memoranda before the committee, arguing
that no section of the constitution permitted the lawmakers to amend the
constitution. The committee had about 84 memoranda submitted to it for
consideration as of press time.
This is coming as the Institute of Directors (IOD), represented by
Chike Nwanze, its immediate past president, described the present
36-state structure in the country as too large and quite expensive to
run, saying it was part of the reasons the nation’s economy was bad and
businesses collapsing with attendant high rate of employment.
However, a member of the committee, Senator Sola Adeyeye, argued that
the Senate was in order in pursuing the amending to the constitution as
part of lawmaking process, noting that the cumbersome nature of
amending the constitution made the current exercise a better option.
According to Ndu, the National Assembly should just allow Nigerians
to go for a national conference as being demanded by them through groups
and individuals.
“What the National Assembly is purporting to do is beyond their
powers. They are trying to review the 1999 Constitution. Section 9 of
that same constitution does not give them that power. They have the
power to amend that constitution but not to review the constitution.”
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