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Governors pledge support for N/Assembly’s ongoing constitution review process

CDA News November 21, 2024

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Governors of the 36 states have pledged to work with the National Assembly to ensure the success of the ongoing efforts by the Legislature to amend the 1999 Construction.

The governors promised their support and active participation in the review exercise after a briefing by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu during a meeting of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) in Abuja on Wednesday night.

Also, after a briefing by the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, the governors assured of their willingness to work with the Federal Government on the planned reforms in the education sector

These were revealed in a communique issued at the end of the meeting held at the NGF’s secretariat in Abuja.

Kalu, who is the Chairman of the House of Reps’ Committee on Constitution Review, told journalists that the briefing was intended to bring the governors up to speed on what was being done by the Legislature in relation to the Constitution amendment.

The Deputy Speaker, who was accompanied to the NGF’s meeting by some other members of the House of Reps, added: “We informed them (the governors) that we have received over 161 areas to amend in the constitution and we are going to give them the breakdown in the coming engagements.”

The communique read by the Governor of Kaduna States, UBA Sani, reads: “We, members of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), at our meeting held today deliberated on issues affecting the country.

“The forum hosted the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chairman of the Committee on the Review of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu briefed Governors on the ongoing constitutional amendment process.

“The Deputy speaker emphasized the importance of collaboration between the Forum and the Committee, proposing the establishment of a ‘one-stop shop’ framework to align state-level priorities with the constitutional review process.

“Governors pledged their support for the initiative and reaffirmed their commitment to actively engage in shaping amendments that strengthen Nigeria’s constitution.

“The forum engaged with the Honourable Minister of Education on strategies to reposition Nigeria’s education system for improved outcomes.

“The minister provided an overview of the challenges, including out-of-school children and high rates of learning poverty, particularly in the North-East and North-West 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 SDG”

The communique was signed by NGF’s Chairman and Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.

Addressing journalists after the meeting, Kalu provided an insight into his interaction with the governors.

He said: “The governors are major stakeholders in this country and without the federating units, there is no Nigeria if you ignore them.

“The wheel of progress toward realizing this objective (constitution amendment) will be slowed down and we consider it important to come and engage with them and bring them up to speed, taking them through our work plan on what we have achieved so far and where we are headed.

“We had a robust discussion. The governors made beautiful contributions and they are in support of the constitution review. We also informed them that we are going to be visiting their states and geopolitical zones to get the opinion of the public in various zones about the thematic areas of the constitution we are looking at.

“We informed them that we have received over 161 areas to amend in the constitution and we are going to give them the breakdown in the coming engagements. This won’t be the first and last engagement. We are going to have a couple of more 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 that 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 third voting for it,” he said.

When asked about the governors’ disposition to the Federal Government’s tax reform Bills, Kalu said their engagement was not in that direction.

He added: “To be fair to the governors, the governors did not dwell on tax reforms, it was generally about the constitution, they spoke on the local government reforms, what we are looking at.

“They were open-minded towards all the areas we are trying to look at in the Constitution. To be honest the governors were not so much interested in tax reforms and what we are doing.

“We only informed them that it is before the parliament and the parliament will look at it critically and align ourselves with the wishes of the people, the desires of the people we represent. I don’t think the governors are averse to this,” Kalu said.

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On what the governors’ position on state police was, he said: “The governors did not dwell on state police as well unlike what people thought that they would be emphasizing on the state police. They did not.

“The governors were open-minded. The governors were professional in their discussion, and they listened like nationalists, like leaders of this nation. They are interested in what will make this nation move forward.

“They were not fixated on any particular thematic area, because we placed before them various thematic areas that we were considering,” Kalu said.

Kalu was accompanied by the Majority Leader, Julius Ihonvbere: the Deputy Majority Leader, Abdullahi Halims; and the Chairman, of the House Committee on Water Resources, Sada Soli, among others.