By Gbenga Ojo, News/Comments, August 21, 2020
ABUJA-The Senate Committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution has started its work. The 58-member Committee led by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege will make some amendment on the Constitution that will suit the yearning of Nigerians. It could be recalled that the committee was inaugurated on February 12, 2020, by the President of the Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan, who charged the committee to ensure inclusiveness of ideas from the six geo-political zones in the country.
Meanwhile, Omo-Agege who addressed the Ad hoc Committee for the first time on the review of the 1999 Constitution at the National Assembly complex in Abuja yesterday, noted that the assignment bestowed on them is a joint function that requires synergy from the House of Representatives, apart from other stakeholders in the various Houses of Assembly and members of the public for submission of report in March next year. “We are in touch with our counterpart in the House to work out the modalities for harmonious working relationship as our secretariat has identified many areas that need review in the 1999 Constitution from the engagements in the past”
Omo-Agege however hinted that major areas that require amendment will include; the need to make the Constitution more gender friendly and affirm equal rights to women and girls, the need to strengthen the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Federal Character Commission and other oversight agencies, the need to address the challenges of residency and indigeneship, the need to address the federal structure of the country to be in tandem with our history and modern realities, the need to revisit socio-economic and cultural rights as entrenched in Chapter 2 of the Constitution as fundamental principles of state policy, electoral reforms veto make our electoral system credible, free and fair, fiscal federalism and revenue allocation, comprehensive judicial reforms.
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