I have said it before that the emperor at Aso Rock intends to perpetuate himself in power. The old African disease that infliicts it's moronic dictators is begining to manifest. Election riggers like Ibrahim Mantu are about to begin tampering with the constituition with a view to promote national unity come 2007.
Just what aspect of the constituition do you think will be changed to promote national unity ? with a legislature led by an illegal senate president, a defanged millitary and a hungry IGP Your excellency IG is hungry we have a recipe for self succession here. So for those of you suggesting the wrongs of 2003 will be righted in 2007 think again. -------------------------------------------------- New constitution may take off in 2007 By Clifford Ndujihe, Senior Political Reporter TO strengthen the unity of the country, the National Assembly may have resolved to put in place before the 2007 polls, a new constitution.
Disclosing this on Tuesday in separate chats with The Guardian, were Senator Chris Adighije and a member of the House of Representatives, Abdul Oroh.
Also, to enhance access to information, the Information Bill, one of the outstanding bills inherited from the last legislature has been re-presented.
On the issue of constitutional review, Adighije said there are so many issues that needed review and the process of amending the constitution is difficult and as such all stakeholders in the polity should be given a chance to contribute.
The Senate last week resolved to reconstitute the Constitution Review Committee following the departure of some members who were not re-elected.
In a motion by Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu and seconded by Senator Ibikunle Amosun, the senators unanimously decided to reconstitute the committee.
The committee who also had members of the House of Representatives, travelled to the six geo-political zones, seeking contributions to the planned review of the constitution.
The 1999 Constitution has been roundly dismissed as an imperfect document, which was produced by the military without wide consultation with stakeholders.
In the same vein, Oroh said the legislators adopted a new approach because ''we are not bound by the work of the past House because they were not passed into law.''
According to Oroh, some of the issues that needed review include local council reform, devolution of power to constituent units, privatisation autonomy and centralisation of the judiciary, independent human rights commission, code of conduct, effective electoral laws and independent electoral commission.
''In approaching a review of the constitution, a proper body will be set up to organise a national debate'', he said.
He continued: ''The constitution is difficult to amend. To review the whole constitution, I think we need a conference to bring up a constitutional framework that will also be looked at by the National Assembly and subjected to a referendum. There is a groundswell of opinion in the House that a new constitution should be in place before 2007''.
On the freedom of information bill ''it has passed the first and second reading stage and it is now at the committee stage where four committees will look at it and come up with a report that will be considered by a committee of the whole House''.
The four committees sitting together to look at the bill are the Human Rights Committee, Information, Justice and Media and Public Affairs.
Oroh, who is a member of the four committees and the deputy chairman of the Human Rights Committee, said ''the last administration held public hearings on it. The thing now is that the committees will go through it and pass their report to a committee of the whole House. The Senate will do the same thing so that the bill will be passed into law soonest''.
He added that the committees were inaugurated last week that ''the general consensus among members is that we are not going to waste time on it''.
Collaborating, Adighije said the Senate was very interested in the bill and would go all out to ensure its passage into law.
[ August 07, 2003, 08:24 PM: Message edited by: chiboy ]
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