Yakubu Busari, Jos
The Plateau House of Assembly Thursday passed 15 bills on the ongoing Constitutional Amendment by the 36 Houses of Assembly seeking to address numerous Nigeria problems Among them are Local Government Autonomy, Not-Too-Young-To-Run and the provision of the procedure for passing a constitutional alteration bill where the President withholds assent.
Speaker of the House, Mr. Peter Azi, who presided over plenary that had 16 out of 24 members in attendance, led other members to vote in favour of the bills. The Speaker directed the Acting Clerk of the House, Longbap Wuyep, to make clean copies of the passed bills to the relevant authorities. Reacting, President of Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, Plateau State chapter, Mr. Samson Mafuyai,
In his reaction, Plateau state Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees NULGE, Comrade Samson Mafuyai and North Central Coordinator and Leader of Plateau State Action team for Not Too Young To Run, Chris Iyama, lauded the House for their express passage of the bills.
According to Comrade Mafuyai, “the absence of local government autonomy will return Nigeria to the darks days of military junta so we had to mobilise our members to witness the proceedings and know the next action to take but thankfully, all members keyed in” .
However, Speaker Peter Azi declared open the day sitting with 16 members out of the 24 present voting overwhelmingly in favour of the fourth constitutional alteration bill seeking to amend the 1999 constitution as amended. The Majority leader Henry Yenkwap member representing Shendam raised the motion which wasa seconded by Mohammed Balu member representing Qua’an pan
Yenkwap tendered the apology on behalf of the Deputy Speaker Saleh Shehu Yipmong ,Yusuf Babayo Gagdi, Ibrahim Baba Hassan Na’ang , Ezekiel Afon Hon , Saleh Adamu Mavo , Alice Temlong and Pankshin South respectively. Germain issues passed by the House include direct funding of the state houses of Assembly ,121(3a&b) and the judiciary from the consolidated revenue fund of the state, abolishing the State and Local Government joint account and providing for savings in the federal account allocation committee before distribution .
Others are that all local government councils that are not democratically elected shall not be entitled to revenue from the federation account: The provision of immunity for members of the legislature in respect of what they say or write at the plenary or committee proceedings and to institutionalised legislative bureaucracy, providing INEC with sufficient time to conduct by election and provide grounds for de-registration of political parties, independent candidacy, change of name “Nigeria Police Force “, to ” Nigeria Police “, to disqualify a person who was sworn in as president or Governor from being elected to the same office for more than a single term all members vote in favour , to further strengthen the judiciary for speedy dispensation of justice all members vote in favour and for the determination of pre-election matters was all voted in favour, to insert a heading to reflect the establishment and core functions of the Nigeria security and civil defence corps: To provide the procedure for passing a constitutional alteration bill where the president withholds assent .
