Tambuwal warns Constitution Review panel against personal bias

Posted by admin House, Legislature Wednesday, May 1st, 2013

AS the ad-hoc committee on constitution review began work on the draft bills arising from the review exercise Wednesday, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has charged the members not to allow the personal bias of the House to influence their judgment.

The panel began a three-day retreat Wednesday preparatory to the next stage of the on-going constitution amendment process, following the presentation to the House of the collated opinions from public sessions.

Tambuwal, who declared the retreat open at Protea Hotel, Abuja, specifically tasked the 51-member committee to ensure that the draft bills were free from personal prejudices, rather, “these bills must reflect craftsmanship, detail and lucidity.”

He said: “I must again emphasise the need for your work to be free of all personal bias. You must work only on data provided by the nationwide public hearing and your conclusion should reflect the aggregate opinion of fellow Nigerians.

“As you well know, our country today faces many challenges and some of our people have been asking questions about the very nature of our union. We hope eventually to provide Nigerians with a constitution that will answer some of these questions and further cement our hard-fought unity.”

The Speaker noted, however, that the exercise might not satisfy the yearnings of all Nigerians, but charged the committee to ensure transparency in the process. He added: “We cannot promise that after this exercise, all Nigerians would be fully satisfied with the result or that all agitations would stop.

“However, we can promise that it will be transparent, fair and reflect the true desires of our people. We can also promise that the constitution we will finally present to Nigerians will be better than what we have presently.”

Earlier in his welcome address, the Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee on Constitution Review, Emeka Ihedioha, disclosed that membership of the panel was deliberately selected to represent all relevant interests because of the sensitive nature of the constitution review process.

“It is based on state representation, so that each state and the Federal Capital Territory has a member chosen by the state caucus in the House. Five members represent interests of women and special interests”, he explained.

Meanwhile, Ihedioha pointed out that for the process to work, the House and Senate Constitution Review Committees must work together to propose the same bills and vote on the same issues. They must as well reach agreement before any section of the constitution is amended, he said.

-Punchwp_posts