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| President Goodluck Jonathan |
But the government has scaled down its proposed amendments from 50 to between 15 and 20.
Investigations confirmed that President Goodluck Jonathan opted for what was described by sources in the Presidency as “water-tight amendments.”
A source, who spoke in confidence, said: “We are likely to send the bill on the amendments to the National Assembly before the end of this year. The proposal is going through its final checks before presentation to the National Assembly.
“But the government will not propose 50 amendments as being speculated. To have 50 amendments would amount to re-writing the entire constitution. That is not the intent of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. I think you can safely say that we will present water-tight or compact amendments to the National Assembly.
“We do not want amendments just for the sake of playing to the gallery. These new amendments will enhance our democracy and assist it to work for the benefits of all Nigerians. They are amendments that will add value to our democracy and economic development.”
Responding to a question, the source added: “There is every likelihood of more devolution of powers to states and local government in line with the spirit of true federalism.”
On state police, the source said: “Forget about the idea, it is not part of the proposed amendments being worked on. The security situation in the country and the attitude of some governors will not allow state police to thrive. We have dumped the idea.”
Top on the amendments is the proposed controversial seven-year tenure policy.
Other proposals are well-defined economic-related clauses to empower the presidency to take decisions on issues like the Sovereign Wealth Fund; review of revenue allocation formula; devolution of more powers with more issues on concurrent list; no more uniform wage structure; and fixed tenure for the 774 local government areas.
Others are abolition of Joint State- Local Government Account widely adopted in most states; and constructive federalism; abolition of indigene ship; right to vote and be voted for after being resident in any part of Nigeria for six months; and removal of prison management from Exclusive List to Concurrent List.
Findings revealed that the proposals that have excited the governors border on review of revenue allocation formula; devolution of more powers and the abrogation of uniform wage policy.
At present, Section 34 of Part 1, Second Schedule to the 1999 Constitution (as amended) places the wage system on the Exclusive List.
The section says the following shall be on the Exclusive List: “Labour, including trade unions, industrial relations; conditions, safety and welfare of labour; industrial disputes; prescribing a national minimum wage for the Federation or any part thereof; and industrial arbitration.”
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