Nigeria: Constitution Amendment - What the People Want

analysis


The National Assembly will give Nigerians a new constitution in nine months time, if the Senate timetable for amending the codebook is anything to go by.

According to a 16-month and 11-point timetable, of which four points have been treated, a bill for the amended constitution would be passed by the state Houses of Assembly in July 2013.

Having identified issues for the presentation round of the amendment (April 2012), requested for submission of memoranda (May/June 2012); held retreat to consider memoranda (July, 2012) and held public hearing on the issues highlighted in the submitted memoranda (October 2012), the 48-man Senate Constitution Review Committee (SCRC) will between November 15 and 16 fan out to the six geo-political zones of the country for zonal public hearings.

The event is expected to hold in the six geo-political zones namely North West (Sokoto); North East (Gombe); North Central (Makurdi), South East (Enugu); South-South (Calabar); and South West (Lagos).

Thereafter, the exercise will continue in January next year with a retreat to aggregate public views and inputs leading to drafting of the amendment bill (February 2013), meeting with state Houses of Assembly (February 2013), introduction of the bill to the Senate (March 2013) and passage of the bill (June 2013).

Since the Senate opened the window for the amendment, the SCRC has received 231 memoranda in addition to 56 other memoranda proposing the creation of additional states across the country.

Among those who have submitted memoranda to the Senate panel and proffered suggestions on how to make 1999 Constitution a people's grand norm are coalitions of women groups, youth associations, the political parties, the media and civil society organizations (CSOs).

We need younger president, govs - Youths

To tap the physical and mental energies of the youths in the onerous task of nation building, Nigerian youths have asked for outright removal of age limit or in the alternative reduction of age qualification for contesting election to the office of the president from 40 years to 35 years; governors and Senate (30 years); House of Representatives and state Houses of Assembly (25 years).

This is one of the 10 demands that the youths on the banner of Youth Alliance on Constitution Review (YACOR), a coalition of 30 groups, are asking the National Assembly to include in the new constitution.