Southwest constitutional review conference depicts the zone’s eagerness for increased relevance in the country, ASSISTANT EDITOR EMMANUEL BADEJO reports.
Efforts to review the 1999 Constitution, as amended, to capture current realities and position Nigeria for greater future are in top gear, courtesy of the Senate.
In any democratic setting, the review of the constitution is a recurrent exercise. Nigeria has always been at it. Before the independence in 1960, the nation’s constitution was said to have had more foreign content as many of the drafters were non-Nigerians.
Even when more Nigerians were part of the process, the essence to capture new grounds and position the country for effective and efficient governance has always necessitated constitutional review.
The 1999 Constitution, as has also been criticised as an instrument bequeathed to the country by the military. This has, however, gone through many reviews.
But, to change the whole constitution has been a herculean task. While the National Assembly every four years engages in the process, the efforts have not yielded expected results.
Historically, while some of the changes had not been supported by the community leaders, others failed to get the endorsement of the majority members of the Houses of Assembly.
Notwithstanding, the National Assembly has not relented at getting the task of delivering a new constitution done for the country.
Hence, the 10th Senate took the crusade to the six geo-political zones few days ago. For two days, the Senate listened to the public from all walks of life, as they presented their memoranda and advanced argument for their requests.
The National Assembly’s Constitution Review Committee may conclude the exercise in December.
This review is focused on addressing various issues, including federal structure and power devolution, local government autonomy, and strengthening the electoral process.
The process involves public hearings, consultations, and engagement with various stakeholders.At the Southwest legislative proceeding, the response of stakeholders underscored an urgent need to have a new ‘people’s’ constitution.
The event that held simultaneously at the six geo-political zones for two days was well attended.
The Lagos venue, Water Cress Hotels, in Ikeja, was filled to capacity as stakeholders including the executives, legislators at all levels, traditional rulers, community leaders, civil liberty organisations, religious and business groups showed up at the conference.
Leader of the Senate and vice chairman, Senate Committee on Constitution Review, Dr. Opeyemi Bamidele, thanked participants for their presence.
“I want to sincerely appreciate you all for your response at your expense. This shows your interest in governance and unwavering desire and commitment for a better Nigeria.”
Bamidele, who didn’t perhaps expect the huge turnout, apologised for the space constraints.
“Let me apologise for this venue. If we knew we would have this turnout, we would have spoken to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to give us Adeyemi Bero Hall. We’re sincerely sorry.
“This turnout goes to show how much we desire a new constitution for our country. And, this is one of the processes that will give us a constitution of our dream, he said.”
Justifying the exercise, the Senate Leader said though the process was not new, previous amendments did not resolve fundamental questions of governance affecting the country.
According to him, the Upper Chamber noted that diverse initiatives it promoted to introduce state police; enshrine the roles of traditional institutions in the constitution, and devolve more powers to sub national governments, among others, in the previous amendments did not secure two-third approval at the state assemblies.
Bamidele, who spoke on behalf of the Deputy President of the Senate and Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, Senator Barau Jibrin, said the need to continuously review the document was sacrosanct.
Bamidele noted that previous amendments did not tackle several fundamental issues of national importance confronting the federation.
According to him, there was a need “to come up with a constitution that will address the fundamental issues confronting Nigeria.
“In response to the demands of Nigerians, the National Assembly has enacted five amendments to the Constitution, known as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Alteration Acts.
These amendments, he added, addressed various issues related to good governance, institutional strengthening, and national aspirations.
“However, several fundamental issues of national importance remain unresolved, requiring more than just routine law-making by the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly.
“These issues continue to dominate public discourse with many Nigerians advocating for legislative action to address them.
“We received hundreds of memoranda addressing key issues that have not yet been resolved by the previous amendments, mainly due to a lack of national consensus and the evolving dynamics of modern governance.
He, thus, highlighted several fundamental issues that had not been decisively addressed to include electoral reforms and adjudication; judicial reforms focused on case management and administration; enhancement to local government administration, involvement of traditional institutions in contemporary governance, ensuring gender equity and inclusion in governance; devolution and distribution of powers and concerns related to security and policing, among others.
Bamidele added that, the committee “has carefully reviewed and drafted all the memoranda that we have into bills. We are now presenting them to you all for further input and discussion.
“Members of the committee hold no preconceived opinions to impose upon you but are committed to being guided by legislative practices grounded in the highest ethical standards, integrity, open-mindedness, and patriotism.”
On the region’s requests, Bamidele said: “The request of the people of the South-West before us include Bill for creation of Ijebu State from Ogun State, Bill for creation of Coastal State from Ondo as well as Igbomina State from the three states of Osun, Ekiti and Kwara, bill for creation of Ibadan State from Oyo State as well as New Oyo State also from Oyo State with state capital in Oyo.
“Others are bill for listing of created LCDAs into the constitution so as to be recognized as local government, bill for the excision of Orile Oko from Remo North Local Government into Obafemi-Owode Local Government of Ogun State, bill for boundary adjustment of Isheri Olofin Mole between Lagos and Ogun State as well as Bill to change Irewole Local Government in Osun State to Ikire.”
Bamidele said that other demands that the 10th Senate is equally passionate about are constitutional roles for the traditional rulers as well as reserved seats for the women at both national and state assemblies.
He added that in as much as the national assembly has always in the past wanted roles for the traditional rulers to be included in the constitution, the amendment had always failed because of the refusal of the 2/3 of the state House of Assembly of the federation to support the passage of this bill as ordered by the constitution.
Bamidele said: “The last 1999 constitution amendment that we did during the 9th Senate, we almost got there, we almost succeeded with having constitutional roles for our traditional rulers but the law says that constitutional amendment required the approval of 2/3 of the state assemblies in our 36 States.
“That is where it got stalled but I want to advise that as traditional rulers, you have to do a lot of advocacy, you have to take your case to a conference of Speakers of the state House of Assembly to get their support. You have to do a lot more too to talk to governors, present your case before the Governors’ Forum because that has always been where the challenge lies.”
The governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu represented by his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat lauded the gathering for providing the people of the Southwest the opportunity to have a fair say in the ongoing constitutional review.
Sanwo-Olu however, who spoke for other governors in the zone added that, it will continue to amount to injustice if the 37 LCDAs created in the state in 2003 due to the growing population of the state, is not included in the constitution and allow to be recognized just like other local governments in the country.
He explained that “For instance Alimosho Local Government with a population of almost same as Bayelsa State had to be broken into six LCDAs, even Kano with almost same population as Lagos State has 44 Local Governments, Jigawa with 27 local government was later created out of Kano State, yet Lagos is still expected to continue to have 20 Local Government.
“It is just fair and proper to have the LCDAs created about 22 years ago to be listed into the country’s constitution and be given due recognition just like other local governments across the country.”
Also, the Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly who doubles as the Chairman, Southwest of Speakers, Adeoye Aribasoye described the constitutional review as long overdue.
Aribasoye stated that the lawmakers in the Southwest were bothered about issues of local government autonomy, legislature autonomy as well as constitutional roles for the traditional rulers adding that, his colleagues would do their best to support the passage of amendment of the constitution in these areas when the amended bill is sent to them.
Speaking on behalf of the traditional rulers, Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi said that the demand of the traditional rulers to be given constitutional roles is not because they want to be rubbing shoulders with the government but to rather complement government’s efforts and be on the same page in providing qualitative leadership for the people.
Oba Ogunwusi supported by other first class traditional rulers such as the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Abimbola Owoade; Olowo of Owo Kingdom, Oba Ajibade Ogunoye; Ayangburen of Ikorodu, Oba Kabiru Shotobi; Dagburewe of Idowa, Oba Sikiru Okuribido who represented the Awujale of Ijebu land, Oba Kayode Adetona, demanded that the ongoing constitutional amendment must put to rest the need for traditional institution to be given constitutional roles to enhance good governance in the country.
The royal father said that already the traditional rulers are doing a lot in terms of providing security, conflict resolution and general sociocultural and socio-economic development of the country saying that having constitutional backing will further help to do so much for the betterment of the country.
The royal father they were not asking for anything new, but only asking for the reinstatement of the constitutional roles.
Making presentation for the creation of Ijebu State from Ogun State, a former governor of the state and Senator representing Ogun East at the Senate, Otunba Gbenga Daniel said that the move was necessary to correct over a century injustice meted out to people of Ijebu land.
Daniel said that of all the provinces created by the colonial government over a 100 year ago such as Oyo, Sokoto, Ondo, among others only Ijebu Province has not been made a state.
The Senator said that Ijebu land did not only have vast land and population but also have lots of resources both human and materials and it is economically viable to drive its development.
According to him, the Remo people who seemed to be traveling a different route have also agreed to support the call for the creation of the new state as long as their name and identity are reflected in the new state such.
They have therefore demanded that the new state should be called Ijebu Remo State just like Akwa-Ibom State.
There were also presentations for the creation of New Oyo State from Oyo State, Ibadan from Oyo State, Coastal State from Ondo State, Igbomina State from Osun, Ekiti and Kwara States as well as reserved seats for the women at both national and state assemblies.
