Speakers Insist On Autonomy For State Legislatures

The Conference of
Speakers for the review of the 1999 Constitution, says the proposed
constitutional autonomy for the state assemblies is not negotiable.

Chairman
of the Conference of Speakers for the exercise, Hon. Eugene Odo,  stated this at the plenary of the Enugu State
House of Assembly on Tuesday.

Odo
was responding to a statement credited to the Kano State Governor against the
proposed autonomy.

The
lawmaker said that members of the state assemblies would vehemently oppose the
move to deny them financial autonomy, adding that effective federalism would
not be achieved without strengthening the various components of the federation.

“He
said we want to bring to the notice of the entire Nigerians that the spirit of
the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria does not envisage, in
anyway, that any arm is stronger or bigger than the other. “So there is no way
the legislature and the judiciary can be sub-summed under the influence of the
executive arm of government.

‘’We
want to say this, with the view to encouraging the National Assembly to go
ahead and reflect the memoranda submitted by the Conference of Speakers of
Nigeria to the extent that all the state assemblies shall be autonomous. “And
we want to equally sound a note of caution, that if in the process of the
on-going constitution review, the autonomy of the state houses of assembly in
Nigeria is not reflected, we can assure you that the ongoing constitution
amendment will be truncated and whatever money that has been spent on the
project will certainly be a nullity, he added.

Odo noted that for the nation’s nascent democracy to
endure, all the arms of government should work as partners such none of the arm
would be sub-servant to the other.