Following
several public sessions on the amendment of 1999 Constitution review, held
across the nation at various constituencies, senatorial districts and states,
Nigerians have continued pouring out their different views on what could be
expunged from or introduced into the Constitution in their quest of building a
better Nigeria.
The
Constitution review as directed by the National Assembly was extended to
accommodate the opinions of Nigerians to make their inputs on perceived flawed
areas of the Constitution for possible amendment.
As
at penultimate Saturday November 10th 2012 all the 360 federal
constituencies gathered in their respective constituencies to vote for or
against certain issues in the Constitution.
In
Uyo Federal Constituency’s public session on the review of the Constitution
held at Ultrafit Complex, Ewet Housing Estate, Uyo, the centre of discussion
was the advocacy for true federalism. Issues that received popular attention on
the templates were need for local government autonomy, quest for state
creation, state police, NYSC Act, Land Use Act, Resource Control, Central
Independent National Electoral Commission, Immunity clause and Rotation of
Executive office among many other nagging issues.
Speaking
on the occasion, the Chairman of the public hearing session, Gen. Edet
Akpan(rtd) (OFR) charged participants to “read through the templates and see
where the interest lies, whatever input you are going to make, I am saying, we
need true
federalism”.
However,
the event which was dogged with argument, drama, confusion, controversy and
thrill at various instances during the period of the session came out with the
proposal as reflected in the voting template below at the constituency level.
State
Creation
After
careful explanation by the Steering Committee Chairman, Hon. Emaeyak Ukpong
which emphasized on the imbalance in terms of the number of states in each of
the geopolitical zones, and the need to balance the status quo, the people
massively vote in a yes affirmation, once the question if state creation was
necessary.
Local
Government System
This
was one of the most contentions and controversial items in the template that
received diversity of opinions from several interest groups.
While
majority in the audience stood their grounds that federal government has no
business in creating local government area, that the state should be given the
power to create the number of local government areas it deserves and also
advocated for separation of account of the local government from the allocation
of the state account, which means autonomy of the local government for speedy
development and as adopted by majority vote but dramatically the Nigerian Union
of Teachers (NUT) oppose the decision stating that based on their past
experience during the pre 1994 era where teachers’ salary was managed by L.G.,
that teachers where owed for months. Therefore, they proposed that teachers’
salary be funded by the federal government to ensure safety and prompt payment
of their salaries.
State
Police
The
people out rightly voted out this issue stating that it was uncalled for.
Moreover,
as the public hearing on the amendment of the Constitution progresses to the
senatorial district on November 13th, 2012, where Uyo Senatorial
District took their turn, diversity of opinions continued as most of the issues
voted for at the constituency level were voted against at the senatorial
district level.
Issues
that top the agenda at the senatorial district in a 5-hour heated session were
fiscal federalism, immunity clause and state police.
Speaking
on the occasion the facilitator of the session, Senator Ita Enang,
representing Akwa Ibom North East Senatorial District charged the people
to take advantage of the event to contribute to the future of Nigeria today. “I
am going to speak less and listen more. You are here to tell me where and how
to vote”.
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