•Submits report next week
Deji Elumoye in Abuja
The 58-man Senate Committee for the review of the 1999 Constitution has dissolved into four sub-committees to fast-track its mandate to amend the constitution this year.
The committee, headed by the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, was inaugurated in March 2020 by the President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, but could not function for the better part of last year due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
THISDAY’s findings at the weekend revealed that the committee has since become active in the last few weeks, having dissolved into four sub-committees, which are expected to turn in their reports next week.
It was also learnt that the main committee was awaiting the release of funds for it to commence public hearing on the constitution review in the six geo-political zones in May.
The four sub-committees include the one to review the previous constitutional bills that were not assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The committee headed by the immediate past Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, THISDAY learnt, will be meeting this week to look at the reasons why the president failed to assent to the constitutional bills passed by the past National Assembly and advise the main committee on the way forward.
Another committee headed by former Governor of Borno State, Senator Kashim Shetima, is to study the report of the 2014 confab organised by President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration and look at the aspect of the voluminous report that can be adopted by the main committee as a guide during the review.
The two other sub-committees are the ones to consider the report of the Governor Nasir el-Rufai- led All Progressives Congress (APC) committee on restructuring and the sub-committee to consider all the various issues bordering on electoral reforms and local government autonomy as it relates to the 1999 Constitution.
THISDAY gathered that the sub-committees which had since swung into action, will be expected to conclude its meetings this week while their reports will now be submitted to the main committee next week.
A senator who is a member of the committee confirmed on condition of anonymity to THISDAY that the committee had dissolved into four sub-committees and that its reports will be ready by next week.
The senator, however, expressed concern that the non-availability of funds may affect the activities of the main committee.
He said going by the committee’s schedule, the public hearings at the zonal level ought to have started this month and end in May.
According to him, “we await the release of funds to the committee so that it can begin the zonal public hearings as soon as we conclude and harmonise the reports of the sub-committees by next week”.
The committee Chairman, Omo-Agege had on March 18, 2021, hinted that the schedule of events for the forthcoming public hearings on amendment of the constitution would be released the following week.
The DSP who spoke when the Steering Committee of the Constitution Review panel hosted the Eminent Elders Forum, led by Professor Echefuna Onyeabadi, had said:
“By next week, our schedule of events for the public hearings will be made public. We will have a national public hearing very soon. And thereafter we will have the zonal public hearings. In some of the zones, we decided that we will have at least two zonal hearings”.
One month after, the schedule for a zonal public hearing is not yet out ostensibly due to lack of funds.
