Reps to vote on constitution amendment bills December 9

The House of Representatives will commence voting on theconstitutional amendment bills on December 9. Benjamin Kalu, the deputy speaker and chairman of theconstitution review committee, announced the date during Tuesday’s plenary. He said the green chamber will debate the bills on Wednesdayand Thursday, while voting will take place on December 9 and 10. The house initially fixed October 14 for voting on thebills. The constitution alteration bills include electoral andjudicial reforms, inclusive governance, security and state policing, devolutionof powers, strengthening of institutions, traditional institutions, fiscalreforms, citizenship and indigenisation, fundamental human rights, and localgovernment autonomy. Sections 9(2) and (3) of the 1999 constitution requiretwo-thirds of all the state assemblies — 24 states — to approve the amendmentbills. In recent years, there have been demands to amend theconstitution to restructure the country; in other words, to devolve more powersto state and local governments. The last amendment to the 1999 constitution (fifthalteration) took place in 2023, with former President Muhammadu Buhari signing16 of the bills into law on March 17. The bills covered financial independence for state houses ofassembly and the state judiciary, and the removal of railways, prisons, andelectricity from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list. As the house of representatives prepares to vote on thebills, attention is on its decision-making process — especially after thecontroversial approval of the Rivers state emergency rule earlier in the year,passed by both chambers via voice votes despite the requirement of aconfirmable two-thirds majority of section 305 of the constitution.

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