Constitution Review: Senate President lobbies Gov. el-Rufai to prevail on his colleagues in states

Senate President Ahmad Lawan, on Monday, urged the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai to prevail on his Governor colleagues to encourage their respective state Houses of Assembly to transmit back to the National Assembly their responses on the Bills sent to them on the Constitution amendment.

The National Assembly in March passed 44 Bills to amend some key provisions of the 1999 constitution and transmitted same to the 36 states for their endorsement or otherwise as part of the constitutional amendment process.

The process requires the endorsement of not less than two-third of the 36 state Houses of Assembly for any of the Bills to sail through but far less than half of the 36 states were believed to have so far transmitted their responses back to the National Assembly.

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The Senate President spoke against this backdrop while declaring open the Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture 2022 which was organised by the National Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS).

The lecture was delivered by the Speaker of House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.

Lawan told Governor El Rufai who chaired the occasion: “We will task you to lobby for us. We have sent(to the states) the outcome of our constitution review and we are yet to receive all from the states.

“So we should be able to wind up this process by getting responses from the state Houses of Assembly. Even if it is one month left, we have the capacity working together to ensure that we pass some of the legislations that are required in a very expeditious manner.

“Lobby your Governor colleagues because I can see that you do that very well.”

Lawan said the lecture was one of the laudable initiatives of NILDS geared towards bridging the gap between the electorates and their elected representatives.

“It is also an avenue for we the parliament to tell our stories to the wider audience, so as to change the misperception and misinformation in the public domain.

“No doubt, the legislature which is the fulcrum of Democracy worldwide has been misunderstood, some for mischievous purpose and at times as owing to its underdeveloped stature historically.

“It is in lieu of this that the First Parliamentarians lecture which I delivered last year gave a lucid narration of such misplaced perception of the 9th Assembly under my leadership.

“Today’s 2nd series of the Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture attempt a critical assessment of the House of Representatives within the context of its agenda, this is because the importance of the House of Representatives in the annals of Nigeria’s political and legal evolution cannot be overemphasised.

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“We all know that the House of Representatives is normally the radical arm of the National Assembly. It is the same in the US and it is the same everywhere.

“That is because the House has its own orientation. Its own sensibilities. It’s own sentiments.

“Tellingly, the 9th National Assembly (including the 9th House of Representatives) has passed some of the most ground-breaking and significant legislations in the history of parliamentarianism in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“To mention but a few, the Companies and Allied Matters Act, which was passed in 2020, has revolutionized Nigeria’s corporate world and fostered the ‘ease of doing business’ agenda of the federal government of Nigeria.

“The Petroleum Industry Act, which was passed in 2021, is a watershed enactment that clearly stipulates new principles, new regulatory regimes, and new governance frameworks for the realization of the full promise of Nigeria’s hydrocarbons potential.”