The Lagos State House of Assembly on Friday advanced reasons it did not participate in voting on constitution alteration bills in the ongoing constitution review by the National Assembly.
The Deputy Majority Leader of the House, Mr Olumuyiwa Jimoh, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that late arrival of correspondence of the National Assembly was one of the reasons.
Jimoh said: “The Speaker of the House, Mr Mudashiru Obasa, is out of the country for an educational Summit in Finland.
”We are all aware that Finland has one of the best educational systems, but it doesn’t conduct examinations.
“The Lagos House of Assembly is understudying how Finland is going about it to improve our own educational system.
“Secondly, the correspondence from the National Assembly for the Constitution Amendment came in late, ” he said.
He told NAN that the Assembly received the correspondence on Wednesday for the programme slated for Thursday.
“When you have a meeting slated for Thursday in a place as far as Abuja, and you are bringing in a correspondence to that effect on Wednesday, I think it is uncalled for.
“These are the reasons, but as soon as the speaker is back, we will respond to the issue officially and appropriately,” he added.
NAN reports that states Houses of Assembly under the auspices of the Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly on Thursday transmitted passed constitution alteration bills to the National Assembly in the ongoing Constitution Review exercise.
Thirty-four of the 36 states of the federation voted on the 29 bills transmitted to them, but Lagos and Rivers states were absent.
Of the 29 bills, 15 were passed, including the ‘Not Too YoungTo Run’ bill which seeks to reduce the ages of contestants for the office of the president, governor and National Assembly members.
The bill to give independence to state Houses of Assembly was also passed, while the states rejected autonomy for local government.
The Chairman of the Conference of Speakers, Mr Abdulmumin Kamba, said that the rejection of devolution of powers by the National Assembly was condemned by the state Assemblies. (NAN)