The National Assembly Joint Committee on Constitution Review has received 55 proposals for the creation of new states and 278 requests for the establishment of additional local government areas from various interest groups across the country.
The committee also received two requests for boundary adjustments and 69 bills seeking amendments to various constitutional provisions.
The Chairperson of the Committee, Barau Jibrin, disclosed this in a statement on Friday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ismail Mudashir.
The statement indicated that the the committee will conduct a clause-by-clause review of all proposals during its two-day retreat in Lagos, which begins today and ends on Saturday.
Several Nigerians have criticised some provisions of the 1999 Constitution, which has been in use since the country’s return to democratic rule that year. The criticisms came in the light of the rapid technological, social, and political developments in Nigeria.
Since 1999, the National Assembly has altered the document five times, though some items proposed for amendment were defeated at the state legislatures
Over the years, the National Assembly has spent huge sums on constitutional review exercises, budgeting separately for it.
The current review exercise began with a retreat in Kano and proceeded to hold simultaneous zonal public hearings in each of the six geopolitical zones, which ended in July.
The Committee has pledged to complete the process and transmit the final proposals to state Houses of Assembly before the end of the year.
At the conclusion of the zonal public hearing in July, the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, said some of the issues discussed apart from requests for new states and LGAs were proposals for the creation of state police, transfer of items from the Exclusive to the Concurrent Legislative List, electoral reforms such as independent candidacy, and budgetary reforms aimed at fixing deadlines for presidents and governors to present annual appropriation bills.
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