to have Lagos State designated with a special status came crashing yesterday,
if the content of the report submitted to the Senate by its Constitution Review
Committee is anything to go by.
That is also the
same case with agitators for State Police across the country.
The
report of the Committee also abolished the Local Government/ State Joint
Account and also the restructure of the country into six geo-political zones.
Another major
highlight in the report included the rejection of voting by Nigerians in the
Diaspora.
Further
highlights include rejection of Rotation of Executive Offices among others.
For long,
many Lagosians, including the incumbent Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola,
have been calling on the Federal Government to give the state a Special Status,
considering its strategic position in the economy of the country, and the fact
that Lagos is home to almost every family in Nigeria.
But speaking
on the matter yesterday, Chairman of the Review Committee and Deputy
President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, said, “On Special Status for
Lagos, while the Committee appreciates the peculiar needs and challenges of
Lagos, it is our considered opinion that according such special status should
be a matter of political decision, which should be kept out of the Constitution”.
Justifying the
rejection of the state police, Ekweremadu said: “We recommend 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”.
He said that zoning
arrangement was rejected because “the Constitution should not make
Nigerian leadership subject to ethnic or regional
considerations. This should be a matter of consideration amongst the
various political parties.”
On Voting Rights by
Nigerians in the Diaspora, he noted that ” INEC is still grappling to
strengthen its capacity to conduct elections within the country. It would be
counter-productive to extend INEC’S responsibilities abroad without the
requisite capacity”.
Ekweremadu
explained that items such as devolution of powers, creation of states,
recognition of geo-political zones, local governments, fiscal federalism,
mayoral status for the FCT and executive immunity were some of the issues dealt
with by the committee.
He said,
however, that the recommendations of the committee were derived from the views
of Nigerians as expressed in the memoranda submitted to the Committee.
“Since then,
the committee has systematically aggregated and analysed all proposals,
comments and experiences and translated them into constitutional review
recommendations informed by international good practices.
“While some of
the issues highlighted above can be addressed through incremental amendment
within the constraints of the provisions of Sections 8 and 9 of the Constitution,
others, it appears, require an entirely new Constitution. Although our
Constitution makes provisions for amendments, it has stopped short of
specifying or making explicit provisions for enacting a whole new constitution.
“If this is
not envisaged as it is the case with our Constitution, sometimes there is doubt
about whether the amendment process could be used to provide a completely new
Constitution. This and many other considerations are some of the unique
challenges and opportunities that the Committee had to grapple with.”
The President of
the Senate, David Mark, urged all Senators to read and digest the Bill, so as
to make informed contributions, adding that each Senator will answer his name
by voting on each item for amendment.
