Former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu has said that Nigeria could have been on the right path but for past constitutional amendment proposals that were botched.
Senator Ike Ekweremadu made this known in a press release made available SignatureTv and signed by his Media Adviser, Uche Anichukwu.
Ekweremadu said the present challenges of insecurity and poor state of the economy could have been successfully navigated by the solutions proffered by the constitutional amendment proposals that were derailed.
The lawmaker stated these in Ibadan, Oyo State on Monday in a paper titled “2021 Constitution Amendment: The Expectations and Challenges”, which he delivered at the 2021 Conference of Nigeria Bar Association’s Section on Public Interest and Development Law, SPIDEL.
Senator Ekweremadu who chaired the Senate Committee on Constitution Amendment in the Sixth, Seventh, and Eight Senate, said although constitution amendment efforts had recorded numerous successes, mainly in the areas of electoral reforms and institution building, the efforts could have yielded more dividends had the Executive assented to the critical amendments.
Among such proposals, he said, were those no devolution of powers, state police, fiscal federalism, Local Government reforms and compulsory savings from oil revenues.
He particularly regretted the non-assent to the Fourth Alteration Act 2013, which he said comprised over 26 amendments that could have served as a major step towards constitutional repositioning of Nigeria.