By Gyang Bere, Jos
A former Governorship aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Plateau State and Convener of Professionals in PDP, Arch. Samuel Jatau has said signing the new Electoral Act into law by President Muhammadu Buhari is one of the critical issues that must be captured in the ongoing Constitution Review.
He noted that the National Assembly must be sincere enough to give Nigeria a constitution that will address security challenges, marginalization and imbalance in governance in the country.
Arch. Jatau disclosed this on Wednesday in an interaction with Journalists during the North Central public hearing on the review of the 1999 constitution, held in Jos, Plateau State.
“In my opinion, there is a need for complete change of our constitution because some are calling for us to go back to 1963 constitution and that will not be good for us in the central part of Nigeria, especially those of us in the Middle Belt because that recognizes four regions.
“We need to have federating unit. Devolution of power, we are heavy at the top, you can see the number of car that are here just for a handful of people and the cost is high.
“The issues of bicameral legislature is another burning issue, we need to change to either parliamentary or unicameral, these are issues that need to be address.
“I hope and believe that the 9th Assembly will be sincere enough to carry out this exercise quickly and honestly. You can see that the attendance is high because there are alot of expectations and apprehension, people are expecting some changes.”
He expressed regret that the Constitution Review will not address some of the challenges Nigeria is facing as a nation.
“Sincerely, this exercise will not address some of the challenges we are facing as a nation, I think we are playing politics. There is always a constitution review at every Assembly and money is budgeted for it, we are just performing a role to justify the monies that are in the budget”.
He noted that “The Electoral Act is long over due, we need to pass a new Electoral Act. The President told us that he didn’t signed the new Electoral Act into law because it was too close to the 2019 election but it is now 2 years, yet he hasn’t done anything.
“You can see the lack of sincerity of our leaders, we need electoral act that capture the times. It is one of the critical things that need to be capture in this matter, the President need to sign the new Electoral Act in to law.” he stated.
