The House of Representatives Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution has declared that none of the 31 state creation requests it received meet the constitutional requirements.
Chairman Benjamin Okezie Kalu, also Deputy Speaker of the House, announced this during a two-day retreat in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, held from February 20 to 23, 2025.
Organized in collaboration with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre and supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the retreat provided a forum to review pending constitutional amendment bills.
Kalu noted that although the proposals reflected community aspirations, they failed to satisfy the legal criteria outlined in Section 8 of the Nigerian Constitution.
In response, the committee extended the submission deadline to March 5, 2025, with the possibility of further extension to allow for additional inputs and necessary revisions.
To streamline the process, the committee categorized the 151 constitutional amendment bills into thematic areas such as federal structure, local government autonomy, and electoral reforms. Kalu emphasized that only proposals meeting the established constitutional standards will be considered in order to uphold the integrity of the amendment process.
