Consideration of detailed recommendations on proposed amendments to the 1999 Constitution will preoccupy the Senate in the weeks ahead as senators reconvene in Abuja on Tuesday after over two months of annual recess, according to findings by Nigerian Tribune.

The lawmakers had proceeded on their annual break on July 23 with a resumption date initially set for September 23.

However, the date was shifted by two weeks to October 7.

The report on the constitution, according to the Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, will reach the 36 state Houses of Assembly before December this year.

This implies that the National Assembly will have to devote the weeks up to December to vote on the recommendations of its committees on constitution alterations in the respective chambers of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

At the Senate, the committee is chaired by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibrin, who ensured that the constitution hearing was observed in the six geopolitical zones of the country.

“Part of our timetable 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 leader had disclosed at the end of the South-West Zonal Public Hearing on the 1999 Constitution.

Among the major contentious proposals the senators will look at are requests for 31 new states, seven new local government areas, state police, independent candidacy, autonomy for state assemblies, fiscal federalism and devolution of power.

Also expected to top the immediate agenda of the Senate, is preparation to welcome President Bola Tinubu to present the estimates of the 2026 budget to the National Assembly in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act. The law requires that the President presents the annual budget estimates to the National Assembly not later than the last day of October, each financial year.

The Act provides that the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning shall, not later than the end of September each financial year, present the budget for the next financial year to the Federal Executive Council for consideration and approval.

It adds that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) shall, not later than the last day of October of each financial year, approve the budget, following which “The President shall then present the approved budget estimates to the National Assembly for priority consideration.”

Following the presentation of the estimates, the defence of proposals by ministers and heads of agencies is also expected to follow accordingly.

This comes as the Legislature still has issues with the Executive over the implementation of the N54.99 trillion budget for 2025. The budget has a capital component of N23.9trn.

Recently, the National Assembly asked the Federal Government to withdraw all circulars it issued for award of contracts from the 2025 budget pending the issuance of Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) on capital projects, giving the indication that the implementation of the 2025 capital budget will extend into 2026.

Additionally, the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committees on Appropriations requested the government for now to continue to execute the capital component of the 2024 budget till December 31, 2025.

Several probes and investigative hearings the Senate started before proceeding on recess, have yet to be concluded.

It was gathered that attention will also focus on the pending probes with a view to submitting reports on their findings this quarter as the lawmakers reconvene.

One of such key probes by the Senate is the N210trillion the Public Account Committee (PAC) is asking the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to account for.

The committee, which is chaired by Senator Aliyu Wadada, is examining the accounts of the oil company from 2017 to 2023, a follow-up to a report by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.

The Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, Mr Bayo Ojulari, after several failed invitations to appear and explain the “unaccounted” funds, eventually appeared before the committee weeks back to plead for more time to prepare.

Commenting on the funds, Wadada had stated, “The N210tn unaccounted for is broadly in two components of N103tn liabilities and N107tn assets, which must be accounted for. None of the 18 or 19 questions we asked NNPC to explain came from the executive or judiciary.

“These are questions extracted from the audited financial statement of the NNPC by the Auditor-General covering 2017 to 2023. Also, this committee had not at any time said the N210tn in question, as far as the queries are concerned, was stolen or missing.

“What the committee is doing is a required investigation on queries raised in the report in line with its constitutional mandate. Therefore, the committee is giving NNPC three weeks to forward written responses on all 19 queries, after which the GCEO will be invited along with other management staff to appear for defence.”

Ojulari is expected to return to the committee to speak on the issue as senators reconvene, having exhausted the three weeks given to him.

“I’m just over 100 days in office as the GCEO of NNPC. I still need time to do further digging, given the perspectives I have heard now on the issues. This is coming in the midst of a huge national assignment. Your explanation has now changed my perspective about the issues.

“I need to understand the issues myself so I can respond appropriately. I will get a team, and please get the details properly reconciled so we can work to provide answers to the queries. In doing this, I will surely engage the external auditors and other relevant groups”, he had told the panel the last time he honoured the invitation weeks ago. (Nigerian Tribune)

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