The Nigerian Senate has constituted a 45-member committee to review and amend the 1999 constitution.
Godswill Akpabio, president of the Senate announced the composition of the committee during the plenary on Wednesday.
Akpabio said the committee will be chaired by Barau Jibrin, deputy Senate president, with Opeyemi Bamidele, Senate leader, as deputy chairman.
According to Akpabio, the 1999 constitution contains many issues that “need to be put right.” He alluded to the introduction of artificial intelligence as one reason for the need to amend the constitution.
“There is a need for us to touch some aspects of the constitution to bring them in line with current realities, particularly with the era of artificial intelligence and some of the things we have observed that need to be put right,” Akpabio said.
He also directed that all speakers of state Houses of Assembly should be invited to the National Assembly for interaction as part of the constitution amendment process.
“The deputy Senate president, you also invite speakers of all state houses of assembly for interaction with the Senate before we go into the major issues of presenting the different memos” he added.
Akpabio noted that the constitution amendment committee will be inaugurated next Tuesday and they will commence the review process immediately.
He explained that members of the constitution amendment committee were selected from all states and geo-political zones. He also claimed that members of the committee were senators from all political parties.
“All political parties, all senatorial districts, all zones are taken care of. We are taking one senator per state because we are talking about the constitutional amendment. One senator per state and then we are also taking one senator representing each geo-political zone.
“So, in case you noticed two senators from one state, that would mean that one of them represents the zone, while there’s one senator from that zone representing that state”, Akpabio said.
