It’s constitutional amendment Nigeria needs -INEC commissioner

Posted by admin Chinedu Vincent Akuta, Constitution, INEC Politics, Latest Politics Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

A national commissioner with the Independent Na-tional Electoral Commi-ssion (INEC), Professor Lai Olurode, has said consti-tutional amendments, rather than a Sovereign National Conference (SNC), holds the way forward for the nation.

Olurode spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, on Monday.

He spoke against the backdrop of calls for a SNC, as well as the disclosure by the National Assembly that it would embark on an amendment of the 1999 Constitution, especially as it affected issues of state creation, local government administration and INEC, among others.

“The amendment of the constitution is long overdue in every respect, otherwise it will be difficult for Nigeria to make progress.

“It is the way forward for Nigeria and I commend President Goodluck Jona-than for his proposal to the National Assembly on the need for a constitution review,” he said.

The INEC commis-sioner said the present National Assembly was well placed to carry out the exercise, adding that “there cannot be a better National Assembly that represents the different aspirations of the people of Nigeria than these present legislators, where one party is not dominant.”

Olurode said once the constitution was amended, there would be no need for a resort to a SNC, where nationalities would meet.

Chief Charles Nwodo, national chairman of the Progressive Action Council (PAC), however, told NAN that a national conference remained the way forward.

He said a national conference was necessary to carry everyone along, before any section of the constitution was amended.

Nwodo said areas to be amended should be subjected to a referendum, to ensure everyone was involved in the process.

-Tribunewp_posts