The National Assembly Joint Committee on Constitution Review has rejected proposals for the rotation of the office of president and governor among the six geo-political zones in the country and three senatorial districts in each of the states respectively as well as control of mineral resources by states where they are deposited.

Also rejected were the proposal for the impeachment of the president, vice president, governors and deputy governors for defection from the political parties on which platform they were elected to other political parties as well as the prohibition of pardon for persons convicted of corruption.

Furthermore, the panel rejected pensions for the Senate president, Deputy Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives as well as speakers and deputy speakers of state Houses of Assembly.

A report by the House of Representatives Committee on Constitution Review signed by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu and the Committee Clerk, Wali Shehu, and laid before the House last Tuesday, indicated that the panel approved 44 proposals covering 11 thematic areas, including local government reforms, inclusive governance, strengthening of institutions, security/state police, legislature, judicial reforms, human rights, devolution of powers, traditional institution and fiscal reforms, for the consideration the two chambers in the alteration of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

The report states that “from a total of 260 constitution review bills that have passed the Second Reading, we present 44 prioritized constitution alteration bills as the first batch of amendments, which we aim to conclude in 2025.”

However, a document obtained by Daily Sun indicated that the NASS joint Constitution Committee considered 69 proposals for the alterations of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), rejected 25 proposals and approved 44 bills for consideration by the parliament.

The proposals approved include the reserved seats bill seeking the creation of six senate seats, 37 House of Representatives seats and 108 state assembly seats for women, local autonomy bills, among others.

Proposals rejected by the panel, which is jointly chaired by the Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, included the conduct of all elections on the same day, which was referred to the committee on Electoral Matters.

The committee also rejected the transfer of item dealing with fingerprints, identification and criminal records from the exclusive to the concurrent list, transfer of shipping and navigation from the exclusive list to the concurrent list, as well as the resolution of pre-election matters internally by political parties and the unbundling of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to create a the Political Parties Registration and Regulation Commission.

Proposal for the impeachment of the President, Vice President, Governors and Deputy Governors for defection had sought to alter Sections 143 and 188 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to classify cross-carpeting by elected heads of the Executive arm of government at the federal and state levels as gross misconduct.

The bill for timely presentation of the annual budget by the president and state governors to the legislature had proposed an alteration of Section 81 and 121 of the 1999 Constitution to provide for the presentation of the budget not later than last working day of September and that the Appropriation Bill shall be accompanied with the audited financial statement for the preceding three years.

The Bill also proposed that infrastructure shall be allotted not less than 30 percent; Human Capital Development not less than 20 per cent, personnel cost not less than 15 percent , administrative overhead not more than 10 percent and debt “obligations” not more than 25 percent.

Similarly, the power rotation bill proposed the alteration of Sections 48, 49, 133, 179 to provide for the rotation of the senatorial seat and House of Representatives seat among all the federal constituencies and local government areas in a senatorial zone and federal constituencies respectively.

While the office of president shall rotate among the six geo-political zones, with each zone holding the office for a maximum of two tenures of four years each; with the office of Governor rotating round the all the three senatorial zones in a state to make for inclusion in governance.

Furthermore, the Constitution Review panel rejected a proposal to alter Sections 175(2) and 212(2) of the constitution to prohibit presidential or gubernatorial pardon for anyone convicted of corruption and related offenses.

The proposed alteration stated that “provided that any person who has been convicted of corruption, including bribery, fraud, tax evasion, and other similar crimes shall not be eligible for pardon.”

Similarly, the panel rejected a proposal for the alteration section 44(3) of the Constitution to vest in the state the power to manage mineral resources located in their states and pay 25 percent of the revenue generated from such minerals, mineral oils and natural gas to the Federal Government Consolidated Account. (The Sun)

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