Former Spokesman, Nigerian
Senate, Dr. Jonathan Zwingina, said it would be very difficult for the current
National Assembly to pass the reports of the 2014 National Conference held
under ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
The conference, amongst other
things, recommended for the restructuring of the Nigerian federal system of
government.
But speaking in Abuja on Monday,
at the second annual lecture of the ‘Legislative Digest’, a publication of the
National Assembly, Dr. Zwingina said, the conference does not amount to a
national consensus.
Zwingina, while delivering a
lecture captioned “Consolidating Democracy: Agenda for the Ninth National
Assembly”, said that restructuring itself cannot hold unless issues being
canvassed got the 2/3 votes of the National Assembly.
He said: “A large number of
Nigerians do not really understand what the concept stands for but just seem to
agree that it is the answer to all problems even without a clear description of
its character. There is some other confusion on restructuring.
“This assumption is wide spread
that the President can simply, either revisit the 2014 Conference Reports or
convene a similar conference after which an announcement could be made adopting
all the resolutions in that report.
“There is deep ignorance about
the need for national unanimity and consensus before a major overhaul of the
State structure can be undertaken. It must be stated that a national
conference, such as the 2014 conference, does not amount to a national
consensus because such conference comprising of mostly appointees of the
President may not have taken into account the views and interest of other
Nigerians.
“Furthermore, such a conference
cannot replace the National Assembly which in our democracy is the true
representative body of the Nigerian people.
“By simple description, whatever
we desire for restructuring must first be accepted by 2/3 of the National
Assembly, 2/3 of the State Houses of Assembly before the presidential assent”.
Dr. Zwingina, who represented
Adamawa South in the 4th and 5th Senate, also canvassed for the exclusion of
political parties that do not have a member in the local government legislative
council or state Assembly from participating in the presidential election,
saying it is an abuse of democracy.
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