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The House of Representatives Committee on Constitution Review has listed 67 bills for harmonisation, The PUNCH gathered on Tuesday.
The 67 bills are offshoots of the 112 listed for deliberation by the committee, ahead of the submission of the first draft proposal later this month.
On May 24, 2024, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, disclosed that the committee received a total of 112 bills and 305 memoranda, seeking amendments and alterations to the 1999 Constitution.
Kalu, who doubles as the chairman of the committee, listed local government autonomy, judiciary, electoral matters, state police, gender, and human rights issues, among others, as areas Nigerians want the constitution amended.
With barely a week to the resumption of parliamentary duties, our correspondent gathered that the committee resolved to review the bills further, to identify potential gaps with the submitted memoranda.
A member of the committee, who confided in The PUNCH, noted that the bills were being analysed to enable the panel to make appropriate recommendations ahead of the preparation of the first draft.
He said, “A total of 67 bills are being analysed and they are at various stages. At the same time, we are also reviewing the memoranda.
“Now, why are we doing this? Bills came from lawmakers while memoranda are the works of other Nigerians. We are looking at both submissions so that if there are proposals in the memoranda not captured in the bills, fresh bills will be proposed to take care of such gaps.
“What this entails is that if the 67 bills fail to address the concerns of the public as captured in the memoranda, our consultants, working together with the committee secretariat will point this out. We will then take action as a committee.”
Speaking on the process, the source, who declined to be named because he does not have the permission of the committee to talk with the press, said the next two months would be a busy time for the panel.
He said, “Bill drafting started last month (August). As a committee, we are expected to get the first proposal approved this month (September).
“The consultants working on various themes are expected to brief us as soon as we resume on the progress of the assignment given to them. If things go well as expected, the first draft proposal will be approved.
“In October, the consultants will hold some technical working sessions to continue the drafting process.
“After this, the consultants will convene a strategy working session to be coordinated by the secretariat, with input from the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre.”
According to him, the committee would stick with its work plan to deliver the expected outcome slated for October.
“The Speaker, Hon Tajudeen Abbas, tasked this committee to work tirelessly with the timetable. According to our work plan, the second draft proposal should be ready next month (October),” he added.
The PUNCH further gathered that the Kalu-led committee would, shortly after the second draft proposal, convene public hearings across the six geopolitical zones.
“The hearings to be held across the zones will end with another hearing scheduled for the Federal Capital Territory. Each of the six zones will play host to the committee to collate zonal inputs.
“The national public hearing will take place in the FCT. Here, the committee will take inputs from all segments of the society,” a member of the secretariat privy to the work of the committee told our correspondent on Tuesday.
