Constitution review committee submits report, senate begins debate after vacation

The Senate Committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution presented its report to the Senate on Wednesday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that one of the highpoints of the key recommendations of the committee is the single term of six years for president and governors.
The other is the abolition of States-Local Government Joint Accounts.
Presenting the report, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said the objective of the Bill in respect of the review, was to fulfil the wishes and aspirations of Nigerians.
Ekweremadu said the bill was to remove contradictions and ambiguities, supply omissions and make the constitution more practical and relevant to the needs of Nigerians in 21st century.
He said: “The committee recommended the six-year single term for the president and governors to ensure that executive heads are freed from distractions, to be able to concentrate on public policy issues.”
It stated that the recommendation for abolition of the state-local government joint accounts was to make for accountability and effective local government system in the country.
The committee went further to advocate that the FCT be accorded a mayoral status “in keeping with the practice in many capital cities of the world and to ensure efficient administration in the territory.”
Ekweremadu added: “The committee advocated for devolution of powers from the centre to the states to reduce some unwieldy burden from the control of the Federal Government.
“There is, therefore, the need to de-congest the exclusive list by maintaining only items of utmost importance to the federation as a whole, while transferring items of concurrent interests to the concurrent list.
“In the bid to engender accountability and efficient service delivery, the committee proposes the creation of first-line charge for certain bodies and offices in the states.
“State houses of assembly, state independent electoral commissions, auditor-general and attorney-general of a state are to get their funding directly from the state Consolidated Revenue Fund.
“The committee, however, rejected proposals for rotation of executive offices, states creation and state police.”
Ekweremadu added that the committee also recommended that the constitution should not make Nigerian leadership subject of ethnic or regional considerations.
“This should be a matter for the consideration amongst the various political parties,” he said.
According to the committee, none of the 61 requests for state creation is able to comply with the entire requirements outlined in Section 8 (1) of the 1999 Constitution.
It recommended that “the preferred approach at this time is to critically look at the current federal police system with a view to sanitising and strengthening it.”
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Information and Media, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, told newsmen that the Senate would begin the debate on the report in two weeks.
Abaribe said the senators would use their vacation to study the report and consult with their constituents on current national issues.
He said: “Tomorrow will mark the end of the second legislative year of the 7th Senate.
“The senators will go on a short break to consult with their different constituents for two weeks and we will resume on June 25, 2013.
“The debate on the report will resume on our return from the short vacation.
“The idea also is to give time for people to digest what is in that report.”
He expressed confidence that the senate would meet the July time frame for completion of the constitution review process.