House Committee On Constitution Amendment Holds Pre-Inaugural Meeting

…Highlights Landmark Achievements

The House of Representatives committee to review the 1999 Nigerian constitution has held its pre-inaugural meeting

The committee, which is chaired by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon Benjamin Kalu was constituted by the House Leadership to guide and manage the achievements of reforms and amendments to the Nigerian Constitution.

The Chairman of the Committee, while addressing members, said that it would be the sixth time that the National Assembly has embarked on amendments to the Nigerian Constitution and has recorded landmark areas of achievements on judicial reforms, electoral reforms, and age reduction for office holders amongst other reforms.

He said that it was important to set a realistic timeline that would not conflict with electoral activities which would advertently or inadvertently affect the alteration process, specifically, December 2025.

“We are well aware of our present challenging circumstances as a nation. The twin challenges of insecurity and economic difficulties could tamper with the confidence of our citizens.

“It is therefore our constitutional responsibility to respond to the 40 bills so far proposed and also to attend to the duty of the government to ensure the security and welfare of the citizens as provided by the Constitution,” Kalu said.

He further said, Since 2010, the National Assembly has successfully amended and made landmark changes to our Constitution since it was first handed over to Nigeria in 1999 by the military regime of General Abdulsalam Abubakar.

“Since then, some of the significant amendments successfully made by previous efforts include judicial reforms, electoral reforms, age reduction, allowing younger persons to be appointed into the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as Chairman or Resident Electoral Commissioners and also allowing a lower age for contest into certain elective positions, moving certain responsibilities of government from the Exclusive Legislative List into the Concurrent Legislative List to allow for increased federalism among other things,” Hon Kalu explained.

He said that the meeting was preparatory to its inauguration which has been proposed for February 26, 2024.

“Ahead of the inauguration, actions that need to be undertaken include expediting commencement of preparations, constituting the secretariat for Constitution Review, appointing Consultants and drafting a Work Plan for the Committee.

“The Committee is fully aware of the concerns of Nigerians on the need to finalise and conclude discussions around Nigeria’s Constitution. I would like to state however that the nature of Nigeria’s Constitution and the history around how it was made and handed over to a new civilian government in 1999, makes it imperative for us to continually revisit the several provisions of the Constitution and work towards accomplishing consensus on outstanding constitutional debates.

“Let me also remind the Committee that in the last Constitution Review efforts, there were some key Constitution amendment proposals that did not pass either because we did not fully understand their provisions or we did not have enough time to agree on them.

“An example was the proposal to create additional seats for women in Federal and State Legislative Houses. Let us use this opportunity to understand this proposal, hoping that those who are the promoters of this particular amendment will start their advocacy timely, be more thorough and comprehensive, reaching the stakeholders to control the mindsets of their representatives,” he said.

Hon Kalu also urged members of the Committee to prepare to work very hard to deliver on citizens’ expectations of concrete amendments in the shortest possible time.

The chairman also said that in the course of the Constitution Review exercise, the Committee shall be working with several experts across different subject areas.

He stressed that the Committee will be working in close consultation and concert with their counterparts in the Senate Committee on the Review of the Constitution.