Constitution review report will get to State Assemblies before December – Bamidele

By Adeola Ogunrinde

The National Assembly on Saturday disclosed that it would transmit the report of the ongoing constitution review to 36 state assemblies before December 2025 consistent with its design and timetable.

Zonal Chairman of the Constitution Review Committee, Sen. Opeyemi Bamidele made this disclosure at the conclusion of the two-day public hearing on the Review of the 1999 Constitution held in Lagos.

The parliament, however, challenged all stakeholders with special requests to engage and lobby their state assemblies, noting that the National Assembly “cannot successfully review the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) without their approval. Leader of the Senate/Zonal Chairman, Senate Committee on the Review of 1999 Constitution”.

Since the beginning of alteration of the Constitution in the Fourth Republic in 1999, devolution of powers, local government autonomy, creation of additional states and establishment of state police, among others have taken center stage at the zonal public hearing.

Present at the public hearing are Deputy Minority Leader of the Senate, Senator Olarere Oyewunmi; Chairperson, Senate Committee on Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr. Oluranti Adebule; Chairperson, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ipalibo Banigo; Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Procurement, Senator Olajide Ipinsangba and Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator Adeniyi Adegbomire, among others.

According to Bamidele, “We have completed the public hearing,we are now returning to Abuja to prepare our report. Part of our time table is to have final notifications before the end of the year and transmit our report to all state assemblies. This will round the process of the constitution review. The constitution review is not a jambore, contrary to some dissenting views across the federation. Rather, it is designed to make consequential reforms that can guarantee our collective prosperity, more efficient governance structure and sustainable development.”

Bamidele also observed that the National Assembly would be handicapped to successfully complete the constitution review process if all the amendments proposed by the stakeholders were not approved by the two-third of state assemblies.

While he promised the National Assembly would process all the proposals it received so far and transmit them to the state assemblies, Bamidele challenged the stakeholders to decisively engage and lobby all the state legislatures if all the amendments would become part of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, Chairman, Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria and Speaker, Oyo State Assembly, Rt. Hon. Debo Ogundoyin solicited for more power to be devolved to subnational government.

Ogundoyin who was represented by the Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. Abiodun Fadeyi, said both federal and state governments should be allowed to legislate on issues that border on solid minerals, labour matters, drug and poisons, telecommunications, stamp duty amongst others.