The report of the National Constitutional Conference, which closed on August 4, is now in possession of the members of the House of Representatives.
Copies of the report which did not come in the form of an Executive Bill from President Goodluck Jonathan for any action by the National Assembly, have, nevertheless been given to each member of the Lower House for perusal.
The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, confirmed the service of the report on members in Abuja. He said the document with lawmakers was the abridged version of the report, intended to highlight the issues the Federal Government wanted the lawmakers to emphasise. “What we have is the compressed report on the issues that I think the federal government wants us to concentrate on”, Mohammed added.
This was stated by Mohammed barely 24 hours after the House passed 70 new clauses to be added to the 1999 Constitution. When pressed about what the members would do with the confab report, the spokesman replied that the House would look at it in the next two weeks. According to him, there is a possibility that the House would harmonise aspects of the report that had a bearing on the constitutional clauses it already passed and include them in the new constitution.