The two chambers of the National Assembly- the Senate and the House of Representatives are set to constitute Constitution Review committees and kick off activities, as the National Assembly reconvenes this week. Both committees are usually comprised of top-notch members with the Deputy Senate President as Chairman of the committee in the Senate and the Deputy Speaker chairing the committee in the House of Representatives. Although the committee is said to be ad-hoc, it has been a regular committee in the National Assembly since the inception of the fourth republic. The committee made history in 2010 when it succeeded for the first time in altering the Constitution of Nigeria. At the time, the committee was chaired in the Senate by Senator Ike Ekweremadu and in the House of Representatives by Hon. Bello Nafada.
An attempt to amend the Constitution in the 8th National Assembly was partly successful with only a few Bills receiving assent from the President, including the Age reduction Bill, the Financial Autonomy of State Legislatures and State Judiciary Bill, the Determination of Pre-election matters Bill, etc. It is expected that this new round of Constitution alteration will focus on outstanding issues, including Local Government reform, fiscal federation, etc.