More amendments to 1999 Constitution coming – Jonathan

Posted by admin Constitution, Latest Politics Monday, January 10th, 2011

HISTORY was made in Abuja on Monday, as President Goodluck Jonathan assented to the first ever amendments of the 1999 Constitution with a pledge to send more areas for amendment once the next National Assembly is inaugurated later this year.

Flanked by Senate President, Senator David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Dimeji Bankole, in the Conference Room of the Presidential Villa, the president appended his signature on the first and second amendments (2010) of the constitution, both of which addressed the timeline for the conduct of general election among others.

Speaking at the short signing ceremony, he said such amendments to the constitution would continue until the document fully reflected the thinking and aspirations of Nigerians.

According to him, “Ordinarily, I am not supposed to make comment because this is part of my normal responsibility as the president to sign the amended constitution. But since 1999 to date, this is the first time that we have concluded amending some parts of the 1999 Constitution.

“We have operated this constitution from then till now and one is quite conversant with some of the provisions that are a bit worrisome and some that we cannot implement properly.

“We still have such in the Constitution and we will continue the process of amendment,” Jonathan said.

Jonathan who was confident that he would be in office in the next dispensation, said some of the first executive bills that would be sent to the National Assembly would be to amend parts of the constitution.

“I know that as we inaugurate the National Assembly this year, one of the first Bills from us; by God’s grace I will be there; the first bill that will go from us will be to amend some other parts of the Constitution.

“We have to do that with the cooperation of Nigerians until we have a constitution that reflects the aspirations of Nigerians not the one that people was handed to us by the military,” he stated.

Jonathan observed that even when there were controversies over the signing of the amendments into law, there was general agreement that the provisions of the nation’s law must be followed for the sake of this generation of Nigerians and others to come.wp_posts