By Paul Effiong
Chairman, the House of Representatives Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, Hon Benjamin Kalu, has revealed that none of the proposal for 31 States it recently received met the constitutional specification.
Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon Kalu stated this during a two-day retreat for members of the Committee in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, in Friday.
AljazirahNigeria gathered that the retreat started from February 20 to 23, 2025, served as a platform for reviewing pending amendment bills and strategizing on the next steps in the constitutional review procedure.
The event which is organised by the 10th House in collaboration with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre is supported by the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office,FCDO.
Speaking in the context of state creation in Nigeria’s governance discourse, Kalu maintained that while the demands reflected the collective aspirations of various communities, the proposal requested short of the legal criteria urgent consideration.
According to him, the committee has also extended the deadline for submissions to March 5, 2025, to allow for further input and possible revisions of various request and agitation.
He said the House Committee is currently reviewing 151 constitutional amendment bills, reflecting lawmakers’ collective effort to refine governance in Nigeria.
“Therefore, we have since extended the submission date to 5th of March, 2025. But this retreat could in our resolution extend it further if we find out that there are still challenges that the people we represent in their efforts to make their voices heard.
“So at the end of this retreat, it will be one of the things we will look into, whether or not we will extend the time. But let it be a notice that none of the applications followed the conditions laid out by Section 8 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Kalu said.
The thematic areas are Federal Structure and Power Devolution, Local Government Autonomy, Public Revenue, Fiscal Federation, and Revenue Allocation, Nigerian Police and Security Architecture, Comprehensive Judicial Reforms, Electoral Reforms, Gender Issues and Human Rights as well as state creation.
