The Deputy Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Chief Toby Okechukwu says a conscientious alteration of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, will provide answers to some challenges facing Nigeria.

Okechukwu said this on Tuesday in Enugu during the South-East Public Hearing of the Special Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

The lawmaker said that the country had continued to reap the dividends of previous amendments in the areas of electoral reforms and institutional building.

He, however, said that it was regrettable that some genuine attempts made to amend the constitution was not successful.

“There is no doubt that the nation and the stakeholders now see more reason the previously proposed amendments should have been supported to succeed.

“Had the proposed amendments succeeded, Nigeria would most likely not be in the security quagmire and socio-economic quandary she is in today,” he said. Okechukwu, however, said that it was not late to put the country on the path of recovery and prosperity through constitutional re-engineering.

“The success of this present exercise is that those who placed roadblocks to the various proposed amendments to the 1999 Constitution would have seen by now that we meant well.

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On our part, we assure you that your views will count and will form part of the working documents and views of the constitution review exercise by the 9th Assembly,” Okechukwu said.

Earlier in a goodwill message, the Speaker, Enugu State House of Assembly, Chief Edward Ubosi, said that there was no better time to amend the constitution than now. Ubosi urged the National Assembly to ensure that the legislature was granted autonomy under the current effort to alter the constitution.

He said that the state assembly would without hesitation vote in favour of legislative autonomy and others. Ubosi also said that the state assembly would also organise its own public hearing to get the views of their constituents on the ongoing efforts to alter the constitution.