The Nigeria National Assembly has entered the final stretch of Nigeria’s ongoing Constitution review, holding what leaders described as the last and most decisive joint retreat before lawmakers cast their votes on landmark amendments poised to reshape the nation’s governance structure.
The retreat, held on Monday, brought together members of the Constitution Review Committee and Speakers of State Houses of Assembly, who unanimously declared that the window for debate had closed. The next step, they said, is historic voting on the Constitution alteration bills.
Senate Deputy President and Chairman of the Constitution Review Committee, Senator Barau Jibrin, made it clear that the session was not another round of deliberation but the concluding meeting before decisions are formally taken.
“Our meeting today will be less deliberative… the purpose is to approve positions reached previously,” Barau stated.
“This is the last lap of this assignment. We must fulfil our promise to Nigerians that the Bills will be transmitted to the State Houses of Assembly this year.”
He recalled that most contentious issues had already been resolved during the Lagos retreat held a month earlier, leaving only ratification and technical harmonisation.
Echoing the sense of urgency, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chairman of the House Constitution Review Committee, Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu, declared that the amendment process had reached its turning point.
“Colleagues, let me be clear: this is the final retreat before the historic voting on the constitution alteration bills,” Kalu said.
“After today, we move from deliberation to decision. We move from consultation to legislative action. We move from debate to delivery.”
Kalu highlighted that the committee had already carried out six zonal hearings, three technical retreats, and wide-ranging consultations with governors, political parties, security agencies, traditional rulers, women’s groups, and civil society organisations.
According to him, those engagements revealed overwhelming national demand for reforms that would:
