SAN FRANCISCO, July 30, (THEWILL) – The Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly says it should not be difficult for the 36 state legislative houses to vote on issues thrown up in the first leg of the amendment process for the 1999 Constitution because the National Assembly has at different stages of the debates and discussions leading the process involved the Conference of Speakers.
This was contained in a statement by the chairman of the conference, Alhaji Ismaila A. Kamba, which lauded the National Assembly for the depth of work so far done in the ongoing amendment process for the 1999 Constitution, to deepen the nation’s democracy and improve on the quality of governance at all levels in the country.
While congratulating federal lawmakers for successfully completing the first phase, the Speakers at the weekend urged the National Assembly to quickly forward the items approved by both chambers to the states for expeditious deliberation and action by the 36 state Houses of Assembly.
Kamba, who is the Speaker of the Kebbi State House of Assembly, commended the ingenuity and innovations introduced into the process by the National Assembly during the voting on the issues put forward by the joint Committee on Constitution Amendment.
According to the statement, “The Conference of Speakers is happy as the National Assembly separated the issues into different bills such that it is easy to vote on different issues in a clear manner.
“We will enjoin all our colleagues to borrow a leaf from that in the voting on the amendment to the constitution. Same procedure can be used by Speakers during voting on other thorny and sensitive issues that may come to our respective chambers in the future.
“We are also happy that issues that can help improve governance at all levels, that can strengthen the judiciary, aid the anti-corruption war of the government, entrench separation of powers, develop the legislature at the state levels and improve on the performance of the local government authorities and many important issues have been taken care of in the constitution amendment.”
THEWILL recalls that both chambers of the National Assembly had last week voted on 33 items in a bid to amend some sections of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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