Isaac Samuel
The House of Representatives may cast its vote on the ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution on 10 December, the Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the House Committee on Constitution Review, Benjamin Kalu, announced on Thursday.
Speaking during plenary, Kalu said the chamber is likely to dedicate three consecutive legislative days to conclude debates on the proposed amendments before taking a final position the following week.
If the House meets the 10 December timeline, the vote will take place before the chamber proceeds on its end-of-year break.
The Senate is also expected to proceed with its own vote after which harmonised positions will be transmitted to state assemblies for concurrence, as required by the Constitution.
If adopted by at least 24 state assemblies, the amendments will be returned to the National Assembly for final certification and onward transmission to the president for assent.
According to Kalu, the House has already completed the technical work required for the current phase of the review process, and the committee is now preparing the final documents that will be tabled before lawmakers for consideration.
Kalu said: “We are going to continue another set of debates next week, but this time it will be on the Constitution review.
“We will confirm to you before that Tuesday if we are taking this decision. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday will be for the debates because we are looking at the upper week to be when we will vote on the Constitution, which is about 10 December, before we wind down this session.”
According to him, the upcoming sessions will prepare members ahead of the final vote scheduled for the second week of December.
“The communications will go, but prepare yourself for debate next week on the Constitution amendment, the review programme that we’ve been going through because we have finished our work and the committee level and it is just to present it to the house and then debate on it,” he added.
