By: Beatrice Gondyi
The Zonal Public Hearing on Constitution review has commenced in Bauchi with the Senate assuring citizens that the next Constitution will encompass every sphere of the nation and no section will be left out.

Chairman of the Bauchi zone, Senator Abubakar Kyari, while presenting the welcome address to the Deputy Senate President, Ovie-Omo Agege in Bauchi, on Wednesday, at the opening of the North-East Zonal Public Hearing on the review of the 1999 constitution explained that it has taken a long time to review the constitution due to the fact that in a democracy, it is not always easy to review the constitution because it has to undergo a lot of processes that must be in line with democratic settings.

Omo-Agege explained that the review process is taking the bottom to up approach by engaging the public hearings across the country before the national hearing in order to ensure that Nigerians have their inputs well captured in the new document.

Ovie-Omo Agege assured that all the lapses and holes in the 1999 Constitution as amended will be corrected in order to give every segment of the society a sense of belonging in the scheme of things in the country appealing to Nigerians to make logical submissions in their memoranda.

In his remarks, Bauchi State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir, called for the creation of more states and local government areas in the country so that there will be more even development across the country.

The governor also called for constitutional recognition and roles for the traditional institutions in the country because according to him, the institution has a vital role in the well-being of the country.

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He said that “there should be fairness and equity in the distribution of the country’s resources. We in Bauchi need additional local government areas, there are states smaller in landmass and population to Bauchi State but are getting more allocations because they have more local government areas than us.”

The governor added that “there’s the need for devolution of power because much power is concentrated more at the center. We need to have a way out of the problems militating against our unity and progress, we need to move ahead in terms of development.”

Bala Mohammed also said that the present three tiers of government federal, states, and LGA should be retained in the new constitution but states should be allowed to control the natural resources in their various states and remit to the federal its own share.