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| Senate President Ahmed Lawan (left) said constitutional review will begin in January. |
Nigeria's Senate President, Ahmad Lawan has said that there are references in the Nigerian constitution in need of a review, and that the Senate is determined to get that done in the coming year.
Lawal made the disclosure yesterday, while hosting the European Union Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ketil Karlsen who paid him a courtesy visit.
He said the Senate has been pre-occupied with other issues as so, was unable to constitute a constitutional review committee. He however, assured that work on reviewing the Nigerian Constitution would commence as early as January, 2020.
He said, “Very soon, we will constitute our Committee on Constitutional Review. We haven’t done so yet because we have been engaged so much more with other issues.
“We believe that by the time we passed the budget, then our committee on Constitutional Review will be put in place. By next year January, the committee will start some work because we already have some references that require some kind of constitutional review,” Lawan said.
The Nigerian constitution has been the subject of scrutiny for years, and has been subjected to a handful of review since 1999.
While Nigerians await the commencement of the review process to know what's involved, there's the concern that the Senate which pledged to grant all the wishes of the president, may consider reviewing term limits for presidents and State governors as stipulated in the constitution.
There has been claims of President Muhammadu Buhari considering running for a third term in office, but will have to first of all, deal with the issue of term limits which restricts the president to only two terms of four years each.
Adding fuel to the third term speculation, is the report of an APC stalwart in Ebonyi state, Hon. Charles Oko Enya, who beseeched a Federal High Court in Abakiliki, to direct the National Assembly, the Attorney-General of the Federation and minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to remove constitutional clauses hindering elected President and state governors from seeking a third term in office.
Although, President Buhari has since dismissed reports of a possible third term bid, saying he harbors no such ambition, it would be interesting however, to see what happens once the Senate finally constitute a review committee in January.
