Public officeholders who hide behind the immunity clause to steal will soon be licking their wounds, as the House of Representatives is set to withdraw the contentious clause from the constitution.
This is one of the recommendations contained in the report of the
House of Representatives ad-hoc Committee on Review of the 1999
Constitution which is scheduled to be laid on the floor of the House
today.
Among other things, LEADERSHIP gathered from a member of the committee who craved anonymity since the report has not been debated by the House, that the report also recommended, despite variance with the Senate, that two terms be maintained, with a four-year span for political officeholders including the president and his deputy.
On local government, the special committee headed by the deputy speaker of the House, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, asked that a definite uniform tenure be provided for all local government officeholders in line with the request of the Nigerian public.
The committee had, last November, nationwide people's public sessions held in all constituencies to collect input of the public on constitution amendment, the results of which were announced in a public presentation at the National Assembly earlier this year.
Key elements in the template used for the opinion gathering exercise include the granting of full autonomy, including financial autonomy, to local government administrations and removal of immunity against prosecution from the president, vice president, governors and their deputies, , particularly as ıt relates to criminal offences.
Others include rotation of the office of the president, scrapping of state independent electoral commissions (SIECs), state creation, state police as well as autonomy to state legislatures.
Senators fight over state of nation address
Meanwhile, senators were yesterday embroiled in an ugly brawl over President Jonathan's rejection of certain provisions of the State of Nation Address Bill (2013) - a bill to make it mandatory for any sitting president to address a joint session of the National Assembly in July of every year.
Among other things, LEADERSHIP gathered from a member of the committee who craved anonymity since the report has not been debated by the House, that the report also recommended, despite variance with the Senate, that two terms be maintained, with a four-year span for political officeholders including the president and his deputy.
On local government, the special committee headed by the deputy speaker of the House, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, asked that a definite uniform tenure be provided for all local government officeholders in line with the request of the Nigerian public.
The committee had, last November, nationwide people's public sessions held in all constituencies to collect input of the public on constitution amendment, the results of which were announced in a public presentation at the National Assembly earlier this year.
Key elements in the template used for the opinion gathering exercise include the granting of full autonomy, including financial autonomy, to local government administrations and removal of immunity against prosecution from the president, vice president, governors and their deputies, , particularly as ıt relates to criminal offences.
Others include rotation of the office of the president, scrapping of state independent electoral commissions (SIECs), state creation, state police as well as autonomy to state legislatures.
Senators fight over state of nation address
Meanwhile, senators were yesterday embroiled in an ugly brawl over President Jonathan's rejection of certain provisions of the State of Nation Address Bill (2013) - a bill to make it mandatory for any sitting president to address a joint session of the National Assembly in July of every year.
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