THE Senate on Thursday received the status report of its Constitution Review Committee, just as it has made it mandatory that henceforth the President and Governors must assign portfolios to persons nominated as ministers or commissioners respectively prior to confirmation by the Senate or State House of Assembly.
This was contained as amended in Sections 147 and 192 of the Constitution.
It has also made it mandatory for the President to attend a joint meeting of the National Assembly once a year to deliver a State of the Nation Address and removed the lawmaking power of the executive arm of government under S. 315.
The extant provision is starkly contrary to Section 4 of the Constitution which confers law-making powers exclusively on the legislature.
In the report, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been empowered to de-register political parties for non-fulfillment of certain conditions such as breach of registration requirements and failure to secure/win either a presidential, governorship, Local Government chairmanship or a seat in the National or State Assembly elections.
The committee has also recommended that the federal government must make a provision for national savings of 50 per cent of oil revenues above the bench mark for a particular year and 10 per cent of any non-oil revenue paid into the Federation Account.
