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In fulfilment of
the last critical step in the constitution amendment process, the state
Houses of Assemblies may today, hand in their resolutions on the
amended clauses.

There is hope that
the presentation will go ahead and that there won’t be a repeat of the
scenes that occurred last week when the presentation had to be aborted.
On that occasion, the leader of the group of speakers, Istifanus Gbana,
said some of the states were yet to conclude work on the amendments.

Report now ready

“We have been
assured by the speakers that this time around, it (the presentation)
will take place,” the Senate President, David Mark told his colleagues
on Thursday while inviting them to the venue of the presentation. The
National Assembly, on June 15 forwarded the first amended constitution
to the State Houses of Assembly containing about 87 amendments to the
1999 constitution.

The resolution of
the state assemblies on the constitution, will determine the shape and
tone of the new document. The current constitution stipulates that a
clause in it can only be amended with the consent of two-third majority
of the state assemblies.

Watered down constitution

Glimpses of the
returned constitution indicate that most of the major amendments to it,
especially those directly affecting the electoral reform program have
been watered down by the state assemblies. Sources at the National
Assembly, however, said the states have rejected clauses introducing
Independent candidates into the constitution. The introduction of
independent candidates followed the recommendation of the Justice
Mohammed Uwais led electoral reform committee. The state assemblies
also rejected the raise in the educational qualification of candidates
seeking political offices. The national lawmakers had raised the
minimum educational qualification of political office seekers from the
current school certificate level, to ordinary National Diploma
certificate or an experience in federal law making.

“The most
controversial of the rejected clauses,” the source said “is Section 121
which placed the state assemblies on the first line charge of the state
governments.”

Placing the state assemblies on the first line charge of the state
government, makes the state assemblies financially independent of the
state executive. According to the source, this particular clause
threatened the political authority of the state governors and they
pressured the state assemblies to reject it while passing a similar
clause granting the federal legislature financial independence from the
federal government.