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Reps pass bill to put railway on concurrent legislative list to second reading
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By Levinus Nwabughiogu
House of Representatives has passed a bill seeking to remove railway from the exclusive legislative list and include it in the concurrent list.
The bill titled “An act to alter the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) to provide that the federal government and the state governments shall have concurrent legislative authority on railway, and to provide for matters related thereto”, scaled through second reading after members debated its general principle at Thursday plenary.
Sponsor of the bill, Hon. Babajimi Benson representing Ikorodu Federal Constituency of Lagos State while leading the debate on the bill said that it shall alter the Second Schedule to the Constitution (as amended), Act (N0 24) 1999.
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ItTHE planned amendment of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999(as amended)is not the appropriate response to the ongoing clamour of the people of Nigeria for true Federalism! The simple reason is that the CFRN 1999 is more of a unitary constitution, which has been found to be unsatisfactory and unworkable in a federation. The clamour for true federalism is a reflection of the frustrations of Nigerians with the 1999 Constitution, which is simply not working and is about to turn the country into a failed state. The problems with the 1999 Constitution are incurable by the ordinary process of Legislation or constitutional amendment because the issue of centralizing trends in Nigeria’s federalism can neither be addressed nor reversed by the current National Assembly, which in itself, is a beneficiary of the lopsided structure, and is seen as part of the problem. To put the issues in proper perspective, it is pertinent to trace the background to Nigeria’s