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Kalu: We’ve over 161 areas of amendment
The Governors of the 36 states of the federation have pledged to be actively involved in the ongoing amendment of the 1999 constitution by the National Assembly.
The governors who were briefed by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, during their monthly meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, said Kalu solicited their cooperation in the review of the constitution.
The Deputy Speaker who doubled as the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Constitution Amendment was accompanied to the meeting by some principal officers of the House.
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), the umbrella body of Nigeria governors, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, explained that the House Committee is “Proposing the establishment of a ‘one-stop shop’ framework to align state-level priorities with the constitutional review process.”
Kaduna State governor, Uba Sani who read the communiqué at the end of the meeting, which ended in the early hours of Thursday, pledged support, and reaffirmed the commitment of the governors “to actively engage in shaping amendments that strengthen Nigeria’s constitution.”
Kalu later in an interview after briefing the governors, described them as major stakeholders in the country who cannot be ignored in the constitutional amendment.
The Deputy Speaker disclosed that the committee has received over 161 areas of amendment in the constitution, disclosing that he informed the governors that the committee will be visiting their states and geopolitical zones to get the opinion of the public in various zones, about the thematic areas of the constitution to be amended.
“We are going to give them the breakdown in the coming engagements,” he promised, stressing that the briefing would not be the last engagement with the governors.
“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.
“The person will engage with the committee to bring their input closer to the committee than it used to be and take our feedback to them, that way, it will make it easier.
“By the time this constitution review gets to the states, it won’t be a difficult issue having the state Houses of Assembly to do what they are supposed to do with regards to the constitutional provision and the role they need to play with the two-thirds voting for it,” he added.
On the contentious tax reforms, which the Deputy Speaker alleged that state governors denied them return tickets in 2027, Kalu said the issue of tax reforms was not discussed during his meeting with the state chief executives, but assured that since the matter is before the National Assembly, “the parliament will look at it critically and align ourselves with the wishes of the people.”
He also denied that the issue of state police was discussed at the meeting, adding that the governors “are interested in what will make this nation move forward.
“They were not fixated on any particular thematic area because we played before them various thematic areas that we were considering.
“The governors were open-minded; the governors were professional in their discussion, and they listened like nationalists, like leaders of this nation.”
The state chief executives were also briefed by the Minister of Education Dr. Tunji Alausa, on strategies to reposition Nigeria’s education system for improved outcomes.
The NGF governor disclosed that the Minister provided an overview of the challenges facing the education ministry, including out-of-school children high rates of learning, and poverty, particularly in the North-East and northwest regions.
“Key proposals discussed include strengthening collaboration between federal and state governments, improving the quality of girl-child education, integrating vocational training, and leveraging data and technology to enhance education management systems.
“Governors reaffirmed their commitment to collaborate with the Federal Government and development partners to address these challenges and align efforts towards achieving SDG4,” he added.
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