Teddy Oscar, Abuja
The Presidential Advisory Committee on National Conference came out from a working visit to the House of Representatives on Tuesday with a promise that the House would give it the required support.
Receiving members of the committee led by its chairman, Senator Femi Okuroumu, in his office, the deputy speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, observed that the presidential panel would be well guided in interfacing with the legislature in making its recommendations, considering the fact that Okuroumu and some members of the committee have been former members of the National Assembly.
“We’re very ready at any time to do anything that will enhance the lives of Nigerians. We’ll do whatever we can to ensure the unity of the country and see to it that democracy is entrenched Nigeria. So, we’ll give you our support where necessary, but you should know that we’re already into the constitution amendment process,” he said.
He told the committee that the House has since begun the process of engaging Nigerians in national dialogue and indeed kept faith with their wishes and aspirations as reflected in the voting by members on the constitution review proposals in July.
He said by embarking on the peoples’ public sessions in the 360 federal constituencies of the country in November last year, the House already sought and received the views of all Nigerians from all shades of opinions and all walks of life in the amendment of the 1999 Constitution being carried out by the legislature.
He said the nationwide consultation on the constitution review was a novel and historical move by the House to ‘civilianise’ the 1999 Constitution bequeathed to the Nigerian nation by the military, noting that the template of issues with which Nigerians were engaged was drawn from memoranda received from members of the public.
According to the deputy speaker, the peoples public sessions which was popularly received and commended by a broad spectrum of Nigerians was made possible through the involvement in the planning and participation by all facets of society including civil society groups and organizations, professional and interest groups as well as representatives of mass movements like labour and market associations, among others.
He stressed that the pattern of voting at the public consultations was generally upheld by members of the House of Representatives when the results of the nationwide sessions were distilled into constitutional amendment proposals and eventually voted upon on a clause-by-clause basis in July shortly before the House proceeded on its annual recess.
Ihedioha, who is also the chairman of the House Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, noted that the next stage of the amendment process in the National Assembly is for both chambers to harmonize their positions through a conference committee which will soon be put in place.
Speaking earlier, Okurounmu said the panel decided to visit the House as part of its nationwide consultations in making recommendations on the processes and procedures for the proposed national dialogue.
He stressed the important role of the national assembly in the quest to realise the objectives of the committee and solicited the cooperation of the federal lawmakers accordingly.
He said that the visit to the lawmakers became necessary as they are the representatives of Nigerians, adding that they would not let anybody down.
