 We're back with the breakfast and plus TV Africa and who are looking at the issue of the constitution and its amendment. The National Assembly had in March passed 44 bills to amend key provision of the 1999 constitution and transmit the same to 36 states for endorsement or otherwise as part of the constitutional process. Well the process requires that the endorsement of not less than two-third of the 36 houses of assembly for any of the bills to sail through. However the only 20-21 state acted on the bill as of December the 6th according to the Conference of State Assembly Speaker. Well at the digital and distinguished parliamentary lecture organized by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Storders, Speaker of the House of Representative Bajabi Amila said he was doubtful if the constitution review exercise would be concluded before the 9th assembly winded up its activities in June 2023. The National Assembly passed a raft of amendment to the constitution and advanced them to the states as required. That process now seems to have been stalled in state assemblies as is it today. It is very doubtful that the current constitutional amendment effort will be concluded before the expiration of the legislative term just like I mentioned earlier. However Speaker and Senate President urge the Governor of Kaduna State who was also president that occasion Nassir Erufe who shared the occasion by the way to prevail on his governor colleagues to encourage their houses of assembly to transmit back to the National Assembly their response on the bill. But we have to bring our guests at this point in time and joining us to make sense of all of this is a legal practitioner Festus Oguche. Thank you so much. He joins from Patahakat. Thank you Festus for joining us. All right then let's quickly look at what the issue is. Now I remember vividly that in October 2022 sometime this year 25 state had threatened not to take action on the bills unless you know formal constitutional amendment bills are considered and passed by the National Assembly. On the other hand there were also cases where you had Omoa Gege who had accused some of the governors of frustrating the process and trying to turn them to their puppets or what exactly do you think is responsible for this process, stalling the process? Well from the outset it was very clear that I did answer and not very anterior think about it but it's a process that the National Assembly insisted on going on with apparently because maybe they wanted to get some aspects of the constitution taking care of which is very important because the entire document is something that requires a lot of amendment that is if we all agree that that document will continue to be our organic instruments that are grown on. The authentic group was quite emphatic about it on the entire process and some of us saw it and it fell off. Veselski Harris. Hello. Well we seem to have you know lost connection with you but we'll like you continue with your thoughts if you can hear us. We tell you that the amendment process itself is not quite transparent as expected and that is number one. Secondly the National Assembly was not prepared because the issues that cause amendment are not even taken care of. They weren't into other areas that are not very significant or important to ensure that we have a holistic constitutional amendment process that can be appended with the state nature or the post document. I think the efforts should have been made towards making an entirely new constitution because you cannot continue on amendments upon amendments and on amendments and expect to get a perfect thing. If you want anything good for this country I think the entire process should be sort of zoomed into a process that will make for the emergence of the people's constitution. Can I get in there? Yes, yes we can hear you. I'm so sorry. We can hear you go ahead. Okay so we've talked about the things when we now go to the states at least we expect that the state council will respond in a very clear and energetic sense but unfortunately you see a number of states that don't work on it. The rest are just standing back in actually nothing. The aspect of amendment that has been done has not been put to the public. I don't know if they are considering it like a referendum because it's not much just to the aspect of the family and the mandate constitution without people's way of confirmation, a way of referendum. You tell them and they say there's nothing like a referendum in the constitution. You don't have to have a referendum before in the constitution before you apply it as a constitutional democratic process if you align with principles of democracy, if you align with these principles of constitutionalism. But then if the states are not acting the manner that they expect them to make sure the process comes to an end or to an end, then of course it's up to that man to be up and ready for it. Thank you chief Foguche. You know houses or assembly, state houses or assembly have they move at a speed of light almost at a speed of light when it comes to passing bills, especially the ones that are sent by the governors. For instance recently River State House of assembly which is where you're reaching us from, that is passed the advertisement and use of state owned properties prohibition bill 2022. I listened to some civil society activists you know commented on that bill and it seemed like it was passed so quickly. In fact the public hearing was concluded under an hour before those who were on their way to the state assembly chambers to go attend the public hearing and when they got there just like Mike Tyson who when you pay you buy a ticket to watch his match before you sit down, he's already finished the match because he knocked his opponent in the first round. They passed, they did the public hearing before people could even arrive at the venue and then the bill was passed very quickly. So why is it that it's taking such a long time for the state houses or assembly when we know they can pass bills quickly to stall on such a very important issue of constitutional amendment. 44 bills that were agreed between the House of Reps and Senate passed through the states. Only 11 states as we speak have a what do you call again have ratified it namely Abia State, Aqabaum State, Anambra State, Delta State, Eddo State, Kaduna State, Kasina State, Kogi State, Legal State, Ogun State and Ocean State. So what is the problem as far as you can tell? That's why we're saying that these institutions, these institutions that are very important in the democratic process need to be strengthened so that they can function on their own without any interference from the executive. The judiciary is also there that has gotten a problem. The constitutional amendment is also there that we should take into account also the assembly that are alone in the manner that it should be. I don't think it's something that should be done to the exclusion of the state houses or assembly. The national assembly members during the holidays trawling their own act without taking into consideration the fact that the end of the day they must give their approval on the end of the week. All right, we seem to have a difficulty with the connection Chief Oguche. But can you hear us? Okay, is there anything to hide? Is there anything for these state houses or assembly assemblies to be afraid of? Is there anything in these 44 bills from the Governors to not want allow the assemblies if I can use that word. We have to go now and unfortunately we don't have a very smooth connection with you and we can yes but we hope that we have this conversation some of the time because it's very critical for our democracy. Thank you so much for making our time to be with us. All right then, that's Oguche is a legal practitioner who joins us from Patak. But that's the size of it. We will you know take a break and it will be the end of the show this one time not that we have to come back because when we return at nine o'clock in time for the newsroom to come with the news brief. My name is Messi Ibuco. And my name is Kofi Bartels. Messi before we go it's quite interesting to see the alterations to the constitution you know about 44 of them. I think anyone who can go into those 44 bills those alterations may have a better idea of what may be at play here. And I hope we have some more time to talk about this subsequently. We'll return tomorrow at the same time at the same station for us on social media and all the platforms are simply searched for plus TV Africa. My name is Kofi Bartels. Good morning.