North, South In Fresh Tango Over Constitution Amendment

North, South in fresh tango over constitution amendment

Taiwo Adisa, Group Politics Editor - 02.11.2009

A fresh controversy over which direction the ongoing constitution amendment would take has surfaced in the Senate, with the controversy leading to a one-month postponement of the zonal public hearings scheduled for the exercise.

Investigations in Abuja had revealed that the forces opposed to the constitution amendment exercise had, again, regrouped and were moving to once again frustrate the exercise.

It was gathered that those behind the plot believed that the North did not really have something to gain in the exercise and that the proponents had to convince the zone on the necessity of the exercise.

The fresh plot to frustrate the exercise came into the open last week when many of the members of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review (SCCR) chose to embark on the trip to Hajj during the scheduled zonal constitution review exercise.

It was gathered that members of the SCCR from the North had simply said that their colleagues from the South could go ahead with the programme, meant to hold simultaneously in all the six geopolitical zones, while the Northerners would complete the exercise later in the year or early next year.

Sources hinted that the move would have truncated the exercise permanently as interests working on the failure of the exercise would have latched on the division between the North and the South to finally nail the coffin on the project.

As a way of forestalling the killing of the exercise, it was gathered that leaders of the Senate had moved in and effected a postponement of the exercise till December, when those expected to travel for the Hajj would have returned to the country.

A statement by the office of the Deputy Senate President, which is supervising the constitution amendment process, indicated that the exercise will now hold between December 14 and 15 in the six geopolitical zones.

The statement by the Clerk of the SCCR, Innocent Mebiri, said that the exercise would hold simultaneously in all the six zones in December.

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