We Don’t Have Power To Overhaul The Entire Constitution – Omo-Agege

• Constitution amendment and review has been an issue of debate in Nigeria for quite a while with many calling for the total repealing of the present charter

Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege says all parts of the current constitution cannot be altered as many would have it modified.

Senator Omo-Agege in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today stated that the legislators “do not have the power to write a new Constitution,” adding that the only power invested in the legislature is the ability to alter.

According to him, the extant legal order only provides for alterations, not a total overhaul.  He stressed that Section 9 which some often quote, envisages that any provision of the constitution can be altered, but not all at once.

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Omo-Agege further disclosed that for a rewrite of the constitution to be done, then Section 9 would have to be amended, however, for this section to be revised, then four-fifth vote in the Senate which is about 88 Senators out of 109 and about 288 members of the House of Reps.

The Deputy Senate President said a bill needs to be put forward to effect an amendment of Section 9, however, noted that it is very difficult to muster the vote needed for a revision of the section that could give the power needed to have the present constitution repealed.

Omo-Agege, however, assured Nigerians that President Muhammadu Buhari is interested in the constitutional review process and will assent to any bill that emanates from it.

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He also promised that the Senate will work towards an inclusive amendment of the constitution free from the manipulations of political actors.