… 35 constitutional bills sent to Buhari for assent
The Houses of Assembly in Nigerian states have rejected the proposed financial and legislative autonomy for local governments.
Their actions may have been informed by the continued intention of their state governors to lay hold on the financial resources of the local governments and stagnate development at local level and to also worsen the level of insecurity.
The lack of effective local government administration is said to be responsible for the level of insecurity at the local level.
According to the national assembly, 35 constitutional amendment bills out of 44 have been passed by the state assemblies. It stated further that it has however instructed the Cleark of the national assembly to transmit the 35 bills to the president for his assent.
However, nine state assemblies are yet to forward their resolutions. The Senate has therefore asked these remaining nine to forward their resolutions without wasting time.
The states affected are Gombe, Oyo, Plateau, Sokoto, Jigawa Kebbi, Zamfara and Taraba
Meanwhile, the new amendment comes less than six months before the end of the tenure of the 9th National Assembly.
The leadership of the National Assembly recently lamented the delay by their counterparts in the states to consider and vote on the amendment bills sent to them in March 2022.
Several attempts had been made by the past assemblies to amend the 1999 Constitution but failed with huge sums voted for the exercise wasted.
Before the 9th Assembly, another attempt was made by the 8th Assembly. The immediate former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, promised to rigorously work with his colleagues for the betterment of all Nigerians.
Available records showed that about 33 bills for constitutional review were available for review by the 8th Assembly, with 28 of them passed by the House. Out of this number, 17 got concurrence from the Senate, while four were passed with differences.
Nevertheless, 17 bills were sent to the State Houses of Assembly for concurrence, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution. But 12 of these came back to the House ratified, while five, including the bill on local government autonomy, were rejected, having failed to receive the approval of two-thirds of the state assemblies.
Assuming office in June 2019, just like the past assemblies, the 9th assembly lawmakers in their legislative agenda promised to repeal the offending provisions encumbering the country’s democracy by reworking and giving Nigerians a progressive document, it could also fail to do so like the 8th Assembly.
