Senate Disagrees With Buhari, Set To Adopt 2014 Confab Report

Members of the Nigerian Senate, have decided to follow the footsteps of their counterparts in the House of Representatives going against the position of President Muhammadu Buhari on the 2014 National Conference report, as they have insisted on using the report for the ammendment of the nation’s constitution.

This is as the Senate Committee on Constitution Review said it would adopt the report next week just as the House did last week.

According to reports, some senators are of the view that the implementation of the recommendations contained in the 2015 Confab report, would go a long way to solve the various social, economic and political challenges currently facing Nigeria.

It would be recalled that the House Committee on Constitution Review had announced on Thursday that it would use the report as a “working document” for the constitution review exercise.

In a statement issued by the media aide to the Deputy Speaker, Suleiman Lasun, who chairs the committee, Wole Oladimeji, copies of the report has already been distributed to members.

“Copies of the report have been circulated to members of the committee to go through and come up with recommendations to the committee, while the consultants to the committee have been given the report to advise the committee on how to go about it.

“Some of the salient proposals in the report will be turned into draft bills, which will be presented to the House for adoption and passage.”

Speaking on the report, a cross section of senators, who spoke in separate interviews in Abuja, agreed that the Confab report represented the genuine opinion of Nigerians from all walks of life across the country on how to faithfully move the nation forward.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, maintained that the problems facing the country would be solved to a great extent when all, or part of the confab report was implemented.

He said: “ The most sincere way to actually address the various social and economic problems currently facing the country is to put politics aside and allow the National Assembly use all or part of the recommendations in the Confab report during its constitution review exercise.

“The report is the best thing that could happen to this country because it contained provisions and recommendations that could assist us as a nation. The problem of Nigeria will continue if we neglect the Confab report.”

Speaking in the same vein, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Anti – Corruption and Financial Crimes, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, advised top government functionaries at all tiers, to forget about politics and explore ways to move the nation forward.

He said: “The issue of politics should end after election. Both the party in government and the opposition should collaborate towards ensuring that policies and programmes aimed at moving the country forward, are implemented.

“The Federal Government should revisit the issue of the Confab report because apart from the fact that it contained recommendations that could restructure the country and end all the social crises currently being experienced, it was carried out with the taxpayers’ money.

“There is nothing wrong with the provisions contained in the Confab report, the senate would also ensure that part of the report form part of the review we would carry out in the 1999 Constitution.”

Source: Ripples Nigeria