By Nathaniel Zacchaeus
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, yesterday raised the alarm that the National Assembly might not be able to complete the ongoing constitution review exercise before the expiration of the 9th Assembly.

Gbajabiamila spoke in Abuja while presenting the Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture 2022 organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS).

The paper is titled ‘Delivering on our contract with Nigeria: Implementing the Legislative Agenda of the 9th house of Representatives – Progress, Challenges and Way Forward.”

He said many state assemblies had not worked on the 44 bills aimed at amending the nation’s constitution, which was sent to the state lawmakers by the National Assembly in March this year.

The leadership of the Ninth Assembly at the beginning of the current legislative session in 2019, approved N1bn for the exercise.

It set up an Ad-hoc Committee in the two chambers to review some aspects of the 1999 Constitution.

The process requires the endorsement of not less than two-thirds of the 36 state Houses of Assembly for any of the Bills to sail through.

However, less than half of the 36 states were believed to have so far transmitted their responses back to the National Assembly.

While presenting his lecture, Gbajabiamila lamented that state houses of assembly were frustrating the efforts of the federal lawmakers to pass the amendments to the constitution before the Ninth Assembly wounds up in the second week of June next year.

The Speaker said, “That process now seems to have stalled in the State Assemblies. As it is today, it is doubtful that the current constitutional amendment effort will conclude before the expiration of this legislative term.

“Despite broad national agreement on the need for reform, the potential for achievement can rise or fall based on differences in expectations of the context, pace, and direction of the specific proposals.

“The success or failure of every significant governance initiative depends on the extent to which the objective is a shared priority of the different arms of government and, in some cases, of the state governments.

“Several of the commitments in the Legislative Agenda require amendments to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to achieve them.

“If you took a poll in this room now about the importance and need for substantive reforms to our nation’s constitution, I am sure the poll would return an overwhelming majority in favour.

“The National Assembly has passed a raft of amendments to the constitution and advanced them to the states as required,” he said.

Gbajabiamila said the House of Representatives would continue to work towards ending the crisis rocking the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

He said, “We intervened to help resolve outstanding issues between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government so our young people could return to their academic pursuits after an extended period of industrial action by the union. Since then, the House of Representatives has worked to address the issues that led to the strike.

We are currently working on the 2023 Appropriations Bill, which includes the sum of N170bn to provide a level of increment in the welfare package of university lecturers.

“The Bill also includes an additional N300bn in revitalisation funds to improve the infrastructure and operations of federal universities. Furthermore, the House of Representatives has convened the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and other stakeholders to facilitate the adoption of elements of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).”

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*Lawan begs el-Rufai to help NASS lobby governors

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan in his speech, urged the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai to prevail on his 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 Senate President spoke while declaring open the Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture 2022.

Lawan said, “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 can work 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.”

*Kaduna gov seeks law to establish state police

The Kaduna State Governor who was the Chairman of the occasion urged the National Assembly to work on pieces of legislation that would lead to the creation of state police among others.

He also advocated legislative screening for federal and state judges.

El-Rufai said, “It is supposed to take excesses of the executive, as well as the judiciary. That is why it is the legislature only that can remove the chief justice or the chief judge of the state, indeed, and other federal deputies, even on the appointment of ordinary judges has to be confirmed by the legislature.

“This is something that I recommend actually that we introduce as a constitutional amendment so that all senior judges, judges of Superior Court of record should be subject to confirmation by the State House of Assembly with a National Assembly as the case may be.”

The Governor said he would not retire to the Senate after his tenure, unlike his colleagues.

He said, “I know that many of my governors retire to the Senate, but, I can assure you that I will never retire to the legislature. So, I greatly respect those that are in the legislature and manage to make it function.

“Being here is also an opportunity to learn and remedy my defects because the legislature is one branch of the government that I know like I can never function in.”

On the issue of state police, El-Rufai said, “First, I think we are all clear now that the current policing system is broken and doesn’t work for Nigeria. Nigeria is the only Federation in the world with one centralised police system.

“I think this National Assembly can enact the state and community policing system that prevents the abuses of the past and takes into account the challenges of the present.”

El-Rufai also seeks legislation for free education at primary and secondary schools across the country.

“We’ve done this in the Kaduna state and it will be helpful if the National Assembly takes charge of this and makes it and national policy and legislation of making 12 years of education; primary, secondary, technical or vocational education free.

“To make the first 12 years, not just basic nine years education, nine free compulsories. This country can never make progress without education. By 2030, Nigeria will be the third most populous country in the world, and we must educate everyone if that population must be productive and advance the country.”