The House of Representatives Tuesday passed for second reading, a bill to alter the 1999 constitution to move police, power generation, public holidays and mining activities from exclusive list to concurrent list.
Sponsored by Mohammed Monguno (APC, Borno), the Bill is to provide for an Act to alter Part 1 of the Second Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to devolve to States some items on the exclusive list for the Federal Government only.
In a lead debate on the Bill during plenary, Monguno said it seeks to devolve some items on the Exclusive Legislative List to the State.
According to him, some items such as Police, power generation, public holidays and mining activities needed to be moved to the Concurrent list to be legislated upon by both the federal and state governments.
In particular reference to the Police, the House Chief Whip said devolving the security outfit will guarantee effective policing of the nooks and crannies of the society.
He stated that section 4 of the 1999 Constitution empowers the National Assembly to make laws with respect of matters, to the exclusion of any other tier of government, included in the Exclusive Legislative list.
“The 1999 constitution came into force on May 29,1999 and since then, series of challenges have been noticed with regards to the exercises of powers vested in the National Assembly which is seen as concentrating powers in the centre. The concentration has led to agitation for devolution of powers to the State in order to achieve true federalism.
“The implication therefore is that the items will be transferred from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List. In other words, both the National and the State Assemblies can legislate on them,” Monguno argued.
