Constitutional Amendment: List Of Issues NASS Members Voted Upon During Tuesday’s Plenary

Details of how members of the National Assembly voted on Tuesday during plenary on issues that came up for constitutional review have emerged.

It will be recalled that the lawmakers voted on matters touching the review of the 1999 constitution.

Below are the items that got the approval of the federal lawmakers and those that failed as well.

YES

• Establishment of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federal Government
• Separation of the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and of the State from the office of the Minister and Commissioner for Justice
• Financial Autonomy for Local Government
• Local Government Administrative Autonomy
• Financial Autonomy of State Legislatures and State Judiciary
• Enforcement of Legislative Summons
• Inauguration of Senators and Members-Elect
• Institutionalization of Legislative Bureaucracy in the Constitution
• Uniform retirement age and pension rights for Judicial Officers
• Hearing in the Process of recommending the removal of Judicial Officers
• Devolution of powers (airports, railways, Correctional Service
  Fingerprints, Identification and Criminal Record
• National Grid System
• Removal of Transitional Law-making powers of the Executive
• Time frame for the submission of Ministerial or Commissioner nominees
• Timeline for the presentation of Appropriation Bills
• Membership of the National Security Council to include Presiding Officers of the National Assembly
• Power to summon President and Governors
• Establishment of State Security Council
• Time frame for the conduct of population census
• State of the Nation and State of the State Address
• Composition of the members of the Council of State
• Independent Candidacy.

NO

• Gender Bills
• Diaspora Voting
• Expansion of the scope of Executive Immunity
• Affirmative Action
• Procedure of overriding Presidential Veto in Constitution Alteration
• Removal of Presiding Officers
• Inclusion of Value Added Tax on the Exclusive Legislative List
• Defining Acts that constitute torture, inhuman or degrading treatment

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the presidential advisory committee against corruption (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay has hit out at the federal lawmakers for making “totally Irrelevant” amendments to the 1999 constitution.

Sagay said most of the amendments proposed by the lawmakers do not address the immediate needs of the country and its citizens.

He advocated that the country should return to the 1963 constitution which in his view, provides for true federalism.