National Assembly Budgets N850m For Failed Constitution Amendment

The sum of N850 million has been allocated by the National Assembly for Constitution Amendment in the 2023 Budget.

Lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives had recently increased the 2023 Budget by N1.3tn from the N20.5tn proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari in October 2022.

The move to amend the constitution has faced several obstacles with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila confirming that the passage of the amendment bill in the ninth Assembly had been stalled.

He said, “The National Assembly passed a raft of amendments to the constitution and advanced them to the states as required. That process now seems to have stalled in the state assemblies. As it is today, it is doubtful that the current constitutional amendment effort will conclude before the expiration of this legislative term.”

The Federal Government in the last few years has been allocating about N1 billion annually for a constitutional amendment.

Lawmakers recently linked some state governors to the failure to review the constitution.

The National Assembly has however continued to make allocation available for the project.

The Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege who happens to be the Chairman of the Constitution Review Committee, recently revealed that only eleven states have passed bills.

The states that have passed their bills include; Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Delta, Edo, Kaduna, Katsina, Kogi, Lagos, Ogun and Osun.

The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Auwal Rafsanjani, speaking on the yearly allocation of funds to the National Assembly, believes the project has failed, saying the 10th Assembly, which begins in June 2023, will have to start all over again.

He said, “Constitutional Amendment has deliberately become a ritual that the lawmakers are using to embezzle funds without any yielded result.

“It is unfair and a total waste of public funds that all the key issues that affect Nigerians like indigenisation, discrimination, land ownership, and some other laws are not captured in the Amendment.

“It is sad that the leaders both executive and legislature do not have the interest of the people at heart, if they do, we won’t be spending money every year over the same repeated circle of a failed constitution amendment project that has never succeeded for once.

“The process of the Constitution Amendments should begin with gathering information from the citizens to know what issues to be amended exactly.”

Rafsanjani added that people must begin to demand for accountability the money that it spends especially as it relates to the constitutional amendment.