Stakeholders want advocacy on constitutional review
Media and civil society organisations have an important role to play in order to sensitize the citizens as well as the state legislators on the ongoing constitutional review process, experts have said.
The experts said this yesterday in Abuja during the civil society and media advocacy technical session on constitutional review organised by the Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) in collaboration with the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).
The Federal Partnership Facilitator, Dr Otive Igbuzor, said the session was organised to, not only improve the understanding of the ongoing constitutional review process, but also map out strategies to sensitise citizens on the content of the exercise.
Dr Igbuzor said the session was also aimed at networking and creating opportunities for the civil society organisations working on the constitutional review to engage the media.
He said the advocacy was necessary because laws, plans, policies and budgets play a big role in the delivery of services to the people.
He said since the media is constitutionally mandated to hold government accountable and that the public opinion can be shaped through their reportage, there is need for the practitioners to have a better understanding of the constitutional review process.
“The media has a role in clarifying issues in certain affairs and it’s important for the media to understand the proposed amendment so that they can enlighten Nigerians. And when Nigerians are enlightened, they can now engage their legislators at the state level; they approve the one they want and disapprove the one they don’t want.
“There are things relating to house of assembly, so the media needs to bring all of this to the public so that at the end, the state house of assembly will take decisions so that it will be beneficial to the country and we need to deepen democracy,” he added.
Highlight of the session was the presentation by John Mutu and Celestine Ughanze on the constitutional amendment bills, process and expected benefits to citizens.