Constitution amendment: Land Use Act‎, Devolution of Power split Senate

The proposal by the Senate Adhoc Committee on the Review of 1999 Constitution to delete the Land Use Act‎ from the Constitution and Devolution of Power tore the Red Chamber apart on Tuesday.
The Chairman, Senate Sdhoc Committee on the Review of 1999 Constitution, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, in the report of the Committee presented for consideration on the floor of the Senate, said part of the amendment is to remove Land Use Act from the Constitution‎ so that it could be subjected to regular process of amendment.
On Devolution of Power‎, Ekweremadu said the provision sought to alter Schedule, Part 1 and 11 to move certain items to the concurrent legislative list to give more legislative powers to states.
However, Senator ‎Adamu Aliero (APC-Kebbi) asked the Senate to step down the item on Devolution of Power because it was wrong to give states more powers without greater share of the national revenue.
Aliero also kicked against removal of the Land Use Act from the Constitution.
Also speaking, Senator Danjuma Goje said he aligned himself with the contribution of Senator Ailero on Devolution of Power and Land Use Act.
In order to ensure autonomy for local government, the Committee proposed that only democratically elected councils can directly receive allocations from the Federation Account.
In effect, the bill intends to abrogate the State-LG Joint Account system.
This will come up for debate on Wednesday (today).
The Committee’s proposal also seeks to ensure that the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory is appointed from one of the six area councils that constitute Abuja so that the FCT will be represented in the Federal Executive Council.
The bill equally proposed 35 as the minimum age for the office of the President and being elected to the Senate, and 25 for the House of Representatives.‎