By Naomi Sharang
President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan, has appealed to Nigerians with pending issues on constitution review not to lose hope.
Lawan said the doors of the National Assembly were still open for further engagements on issues not addressed during the last exercise.
He spoke in Abuja on Thursday while receiving in audience members of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria, led by the Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar.
Lawan, who recalled the recent review exercise said, “The D-Day came. And the voting took place and the rest is history, as they would say. We all feel sad but then that is democracy.
“But what you have done today is to take democracy to Nigerians because what you have done today is to show your belief in the parliament, the National Assembly.
“And you have given an example to the rest of Nigerians that never lose hope because your request failed. So many things failed. Of course many more passed because we have casualties in our bills.
“And I am taking the opportunity to appeal to other Nigerians, either individuals or institutions, organisations, NGOs, CSOs and so on, if there was anything that you wanted done or passed during the constitution amendment exercise, the latest one, and it failed, hope should not be lost.
“We are still around and this parliament is the people’s parliament.
“It is the only parliament that can kick start the process and therefore, people can still come back and remind us about their issues and maybe we change our strategies, the lobbyists and maybe we look at why it failed and how it can pass.”
Earlier, Abubakar, the Etsu Nupe said that their mission was to appeal to the senate to reconsider its position on the need to accord constitutional recognition to the roles of the traditional Institutions in governance.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that he issue of formal recognition of the roles was deliberated upon recently during the review exercise by the National Assembly, but it was not passed by the senate.
