As Senators, working to produce a final draft of the review of the 1999 Constitution, wrap up their work, members of the committee have been urged to drop their personal views for the collective interest of Nigerians.

Making this call, Friday, while declaring open a three-day retreat of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review at Eko Hotel and Suite, Lagos, the Senate President, David Mark, said members of the committee must work in the interest of the majority of Nigerians.

"I went round during the zonal meeting and I was very emphatic that neither I nor any other Senator has a fixed opinion. What we are doing is to gather the views and opinions of Nigerians, because the constitution belongs to all of us; So that we can collate the aggregate views of Nigerians. As I stand before you today, that view has not changed. My position has not changed. Every Senator who is here today has an open mind and, if it is the wish of Nigerians that we go on one particular direction, that is what we are going to work on.

"The important thing to bear in mind is that no single Senator should force his position on the rest of the group and if you are very fixed on any position and it is not a majority view you should be able to concede it to the majority view because that is what democracy is all about. May be the retreat will be a very quiet one and then we will go amicably or there could be heated debates and arguments, but at the end of the day it is the majority view that will be carried forward to the floor of the Senate," Mark assured Nigerians.

He stated that issues that agitated Nigerians, which among others include, "state police, special position for Lagos, to whether we should keep the NYSC, to Land Use Act, indigeneship versus citizenship or whether people are settlers - whether you live in a particular place you can enjoy some privileges" have been collated and are to be reviewed during the retreat of forty-four Senators, who are working on the constitutional review.”

While noting that he looked forward to very robust and vibrant retreat, Mark, who emphasised that "the difference between decisions in parliament and decisions from the executive is that decisions from the parliament is an aggregate view of Nigerians because majority of those in government and the opposition express their views in the parliament, while in the decision of the executive there is no opposition", implored members of the committee to use their mandate as representatives of the people: "With a lot of caution. We must use that mandate in a way that we can defend it before our God."

Earlier, during his welcome address, the Deputy Senate President and Chairman, Senate Constitution Review Committee, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said in recognition of the task before the committee, both "traditional and innovative" methods were employed to take inputs of Nigerians.

He said the retreat would dissect the reports of the various public hearings and other channels of inputs by Nigerians to articulate a bill to cover issues that appear to have achieved public consensus.
He reiterated that the committee has not taken any position on any issue. "The committee has no such powers. There will be exhaustive debate to dissect all sides to each proposed amendment. It is going to be in the open as usual."


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