Political analyst commends Senate over proposed constitution review

A Political Analyst, Dr Kayode Ajulo, has commended the Senate for the inauguration of the Deputy Senate President-led Constitution Review Committee.

Ajulo, an Abuja-based legal luminary and former National Secretary of the Labour Party, gave the commendation in a statement titled: “My Conviction on the Constitutional Amendment 2020’’, in Lagos on Monday.

It was reported that the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, had constituted a 56-member committee for the review of the constitution.

Ajulo noted that constitution review for the country was so crucial at this time for the social harmony, political stability and general well-being of the nation.

He said: “The decision of the Senate to inaugurate a committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution is quite commendable.

“In the light of recurrent constitutional crises, the review of the constitution is imperative.

“I am more excited that a senior learned colleague, the Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege, has been saddled to lead the pack in this respect.

“He is a forward-thinking, progressive and pro-people, who will give premium to the agitation and aspirations of the Nigerian populace,’’ he said.

Ajulo said the review would definitely be one avenue that could be meaningfully exploited by the legislature.

He added that this would further assure the betterment of the lives of Nigerians.

The analyst explained that the current agitations and complaints of marginalisation across the country and other areas in the constitution should be considered necessary for amendment.

Ajulo said the National Assembly had been empowered pursuant to the provisions of Section 9 of the 1999 Constitution to alter any of the provisions of the constitution.

He noted that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria had been amended four consecutive terms.

The legal luminary, however, said the commiteee should not look at the number of times but how they had been able to develop the constitution to stabilise the country’s democracy and polity.

He suggested that some items on the Exclusive list such as Police Affairs should be considered suitable for Concurrent or Residual list.

He said: “Pursuant to Part 1 of the Second Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, the powers to legislate on the matters relating to Police is the exclusive jurisdiction of the National Assembly.

“It therefore goes without saying that no state government whatsoever can legislate nor determine the powers of the Nigeria Police.’’

Ajulo talked about the proposed Southwest Nigeria security network codenamed `Operation Amotekun’, saying that “there is need to remove the issue of policing from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list’’.

He said it would be highly desirable that the contents of the constitution should be widely discussed, generally understood and genuinely acceptable to all communities and ethnic groups.

Ajulo also proposed that the revenue allocation from the Federation Account among the three tiers of government should be reviewed in the following manner:

“The Federal Government should take 42.5 per cent; state governments should take 35 per cent while the local governments should have 22.5 per cent as opposed to the prevailing 52.68 per cent, 26.72 per cent and 20.60 per cent respectively.

“The percentage given to population and equality of states in the existing sharing formula should be reduced.

“Also, the percentage assigned to Social Development sector should be increased to a much higher percentage so as to ensure accelerated development of all parts of the country,” he said.