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Degema/Bonny Constituency Demands Six States
The people of Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency in Rivers State, have endorsed the creation of more States, requesting that six more States be created to achieve parity.
According to them, the creation of six additional states in the country should be done in such a way that each of the geo-political zones has seven states, to bring the total number of States to 42. They also voted in favour of amending Section 8 of the Constitution to remove ambiguities in the creation of states.
The participants at a public hearing held in Degema equally supported the amendment of Section 315 (5) and (d) of the Constitution to remove the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Act, Land Use Act, Public Complaints Commission Act, National Security Agencies Act, from the Constitution.
The public hearing, which was chaired by Prof. Samuel Abbey and facilitated by the member representing Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Dr. Sokonte Davies, featured representatives from the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), civil society organisations, Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ijaw National Congress (INC), traditional rulers, youths and students among others.
They also endorsed the scrapping of States Independent Electoral Commission (SIECs) to pave way for Local Government elections to be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In the same vein, the constituents demanded for full autonomy of local governments. They upheld that Section 162 (6) should be amended to abolish State Joint Local Government Account so that allocations due to local government councils be paid to them directly.
They also voted in favour of local government councils to be accorded the status of a third tier of government properly, with its own Legislative Lists, while at the same time canvassed that the Constitution be amended to deny revenue allocations to unelected local government councils. They upheld that local government chairmen and councillors should as well have defined tenure in the Constitution.
The people of the constituency equally voted in favour of single tenure of six years for both President and State Governors, and rejected the retention of the two-term tenure provision for the office of President or the office of Governor in the Constitution. They also voted in favour of the office of the Governor of a state to rotate among the three Senatorial Districts in the state.
In the same vein, they agreed that a provision be inserted in the Constitution to make the office of the President rotate among the six geo-political zones of the country, as opposed to rotation between the Northern and Southern parts of the country.
They endorsed a provision requesting the President or Governor of a state to prepare and lay the annual budget before the parliament at least three months before the end of a fiscal year, and that the State Houses of Assembly should be granted financial autonomy/independence as is the case with the national Assembly.
The constituency also approved the reserve of certain elective offices for women, and specific provision in the Constitution to take care of the interest of persons with disability, as well as supported a provision giving Nigerians living in the Diaspora voting rights.
The facilitator of the public session, Dr. Sokonte Davies thanked the participants for their forthrightness in expressing their views and opinions, assuring that with their contributions, the National Assembly would go ahead to review the Constitution to reflect their views.
He described the exrcise as the first of its kind in the history of the country, stressing that the objjectives for which the House of Representatives mooted the idea of organising it had been achieved.
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