The Senate on Tuesday resumed debate on the report of the committee for the review of the 1999 Constitution with three major issues in contention.
They are those of the land use Act, and the Autonomy of Local Government Areas especially with regards to the existing joint account between the state and the Local Councils.
The question of granting autonomy to local government areas through the scrapping of the State and Local Government joint account as well as empowering INEC to conduct local government polls generated heated debate.
According to the Bill titled; Constitution Alteration Bill, No. 32, 2017 as proposed by the Senate Committee on Constitution review, the Land use Act should be erased from the Constitution as recommended by the committee Chaired by the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekwerenmadu.
Specifically, the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to delete the Land Use Act from the Constitution so that it can be subject to the regular process of amendment.
However, many lawmakers argued against the proposal insisting that the position of the Land Use Act should be left intact. This however met strong opposition from another group of Senators who believed that the time had come for real change to be effected on the control and ownership of land.
It became so contentious that the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, severally intervened to calm frayed nerves as he declared that the leadership had not taken any position on any proposal.
The Ekweremadu-led committee proposed 32 Bills on different issues ho amend the constitution.
In an attempt to redeem the Local Government Areas from the control of State Governments, one of the items seeks to amend the 1999 constitution to transfer the responsibility of conducting local government elections to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
This is the 33rd item for amendment which came via the adoption of a motion which was sponsored by Senator Dino Melaye and seconded by Senator Sunny Ogbuorji.
Senate said therefore said it has become necessary to strengthen the third tier of government. If passed into law, the 1999 Constitution will be altered striping states of powers to constitute electoral commissions or SIEC to conduct local government elections. The alteration is part of constitutional reforms by the legislature to make local governments become autonomous and independent of states.
While contributing to the debate on constitutional review, Senator Melaye said the proposal made by the Special Ad-hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to effect that the state- local government joint account be separated for the purpose of guaranteeing Local Government autonomy cannot be achieved as long as the SIEC is allowed to be conducting LGA elections.
‘’ How do we speak of local government autonomy, without addressing the foundation. States have to be stripped of the power to constitute state electoral commissions to conduct local government elections. The State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) which is constituted by the state government is practically a joke,” he argued.
“The LGA election has to be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in order to guarantee its credibility nationwide.
“What used to happen is that State Governors sit in the comfort of their offices and select who and who be pronounced as chairmen of LGAs by the SIEC in their respective states. There is always no conduct of actual LGA election in any state’’. Allowing states to oversee conducts of local government elections will continue to make a mess of the call for LGA autonomy,” he added.
The Senator Ekweremadu led committee report had only included proposal for democratically elected local government councils, which can directly receive allocations from the federation accounts. In effect, the alteration bill seeks to abrogate the state-LGA joint account system.
The bill also proposes that no local council should receive allocation except it is democratically constituted. Other proposals for amendment include the one proposing the reduction of age limit for the office of the President and governors, among others. – VON.
