The Senate Committee on Review of 1999 Constitution will hold public hearings on the proposed constitution amendments between July 4 and July 5 in all the six geo-political zones of the country.
Chairman of the committee and Deputy Senate President, Sen. Barau Jibrin, disclosed this in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ismail Mudashir, in Abuja on Sunday.
Barau said that the public hearings would hold simultaneously in Lagos (South-West), Enugu (South- East), Ikot Ekpene (South -South, Jos (North- Central) Maiduguri, (North-East) and Kano (North- West).
SPONSOR AD
According to him, the zonal public hearings are convened to gather the inputs of citizens on the proposed amendments to the country’s constitution.
He said that the public hearings would examine critical national issues, including local government autonomy, electoral and judicial reforms, state creation, state police and inclusive governance.
Barau said one of the bills proposed the establishment of local government councils as a tier of government to guarantee their democratic existence and tenure.
This, he said, was part of a renewed push for full autonomy for all the 774 local government councils in the country.
Barau said that the second bill on local government reforms sought to create an independent National Local Government Electoral Commission (NALGEC) to organise, conduct and supervise local government elections.
The lawmaker further stated that a bill on fiscal reforms to alter the provisions of the constitution to specify period within which the president or governor of a state would present the appropriation bill before the national assembly or houses of assembly would be discussed at the hearing. Barau said that a proposal for amendment of the 1999 Constitution to allow for independent candidacy at all levels of election would be also be discussed.
The senator said that the committee would also discuss 31 proposals on state creation, with five requests each from the South-West, South-South and North-Central geo-political zones.
According to him, the committee has received seven requests from the north-east, six from the north-west and three from the south-east for state creation.(NAN)
'
'
'
'Do you want to share a story with us? Do you want to advertise with us? Do you need publicity for a product, service, or event? Contact us on WhatsApp +2348183319097 Email: platformtimes@gmail.com
We are committed to impactful investigative journalism for human interest and social justice. Your donation will help us tell more stories. Kindly donate any amount HERE
