House of Reps Receives 40 Bills, Ahead Of Fresh Constitutional Amendments
The House of Representatives says it has received 40 bills to kickstart a fresh amendment to the amended 1999 Constitution.
It gave December 2025 the deadline for the conclusion of the fresh amendment exercise to be undertaken by the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly.
The Deputy Speaker of the House, Honorable Benjamin Kalu, announced this to newsmen after the maiden meeting of the House Constitutional Review Committee in Abuja.
According to him, the 40 bills are at various stages of consideration.
Kalu, who doubles as the Chairman, of the Constitution Review Committee, stated this on Wednesday at the maiden meeting of the committee while addressing journalists in Abuja.
He said, “It is the view of Mr. Speaker that we set a realistic timeline that does not conflict with electoral activities which would advertently or inadvertently affect the alteration process, specifically, December 2025, the time we are looking at to conclude the activities of this committee.
“It is not out of place to guess that there is some level of fatigue in the amendment process by some vocal sections of the populace. Whatever opinion you hold, it is important to let you know that we presently have 40 bills that are at various stages of consideration that relate to the alteration of the Constitution.
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“We are well aware of our present challenging circumstances as a nation. The twin challenges of insecurity and economic difficulties could tamper with the confidence of our citizens. It is, therefore, our constitutional responsibility to respond to the 40 bills so far proposed and also attend to the duty of government to ensure the security and welfare of the citizens as provided by the constitution.”.
Recalling the significance of previous attempts at constitutional review, Kalu, who represents Bende Federal Constituency, Abia State, noted that since 1999, the House has made reforms including judicial reforms, electoral reforms, and age reduction, among others.
“Since 2010, the National Assembly has successfully amended and made landmark changes to our constitution since it was first handed over to Nigeria in 1999 by the military regime of General Abdulsalam Abubakar.
“Since then, some of the significant amendments successfully made by previous efforts include judicial reforms, electoral reforms, age reduction, allowing younger persons to be appointed into the Independent National Electoral Commission as Chairman or Resident Electoral Commissioners and also allowing a lower age for contest into certain elective positions, moving certain responsibilities of government from the exclusive legislative cist into the Concurrent legislative list to allow for increased federalism among other things,” he said.
