Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Revising Nigeria's constitution

Nigeria's constitution was promulgated by a military government. Ever since, there have been people arguing for a thorough re-write by an elected body. That task has been so politically daunting that it's never gotten off the ground.

Now, the national legislature is beginning a new effort to revise the constitution. Or at least the legislators want it to look like they're making an effort to get people's ideas about revision.

From Vanguard (Lagos).

The Making of a Peoples Constitution

The House of Representatives Committee on Constitution Review is commencing an innovative discourse with Nigerians in 360 centres spread across the federal constituencies in the country tomorrow. It is a bold attempt at addressing the disconnect between "We the People" and the 1999 Constitution decreed by Nigeria's last military dictatorship…

The town hall meetings taking place in all 360 federal constituencies of the country is an innovative effort by the [Speaker of the House] Aminu Tambuwal... to redefine the process of lawmaking. Specifically, at tomorrow's town hall meetings, each member of the House is expected to preside over a meeting in his or her federal constituency during which the inputs of the stakeholders would be garnered into the ongoing constitution review process of the House of Representatives.

Asemota

Chief Solomon Asemota, SAN, one of the country's senior lawyers said… "We need to consult the people and the correct thing is to have a Constituent Assembly to prepare a draft… "

Styled as the Peoples' Public Sessions, the town hall meetings to be presided over by the members representing each of the 360 federal constituencies is expected to incorporate strategic stakeholders from the federal constituencies…

It is expected that the public sessions will sufficiently equip the members of the House of Representatives to articulate the various issues affecting their constituencies for onward presentation to the House Committee on Constitution Review.