Jonathan seeks Musdapher’s confirmation as CJN – The Senate yesterday listed a holistic review of the 1999 Constitution and the amendment of the 2010 Electoral Act, as topmost in their agenda as the senators resumed for full legislative session.
The lawmakers also confirmed that President Goodluck Jonathan had forwarded the name of the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, for confirmation as substantive CJN.
The Senate President, David Mark, also informed his colleagues that the president had forwarded another ministerial nominee; Darius Dickson Ishaku from Taraba State for confirmation to replace rejected Obadiah Ando, who was a former minister of Water Resources.
Mark added that the president had also dropped the nomination of Prof. Mohammed Tabi’u as resident electoral commissioner for Jigawa State and replaced him with Minkaila Abdullahi.
Welcoming senators at the resumed plenary, Mark declared that constitution amendment remained one of the top priorities of the 7th Senate.
He said, “Distinguished colleagues, let me note that constitution amendment remains one of the top priorities of the 7th Senate. Our success in the electoral reforms is now obvious and has been widely acknowledged after the 2011 general election. I congratulate members of the 6th National Assembly, once again, for breaking the jinx of constitution amendment in Nigeria. The onus is therefore on us to build on this success. We shall endeavour to produce a workable constitution that will stand the test of time”.
But he assured that the Senate would revisit the fundamental issues of state creation, local government system, devolution of powers, revenue allocation, State Police, State Independent National Electoral Commission, uniform minimum wage, joint account and other contentious but important issues.