{"id":26224,"date":"2025-07-30T19:37:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/?p=26224"},"modified":"2025-07-30T19:37:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:37:05","slug":"constitutional-reform-hits-speed-bump-as-indigeneship-bill-pulled-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/?p=26224","title":{"rendered":"Constitutional Reform Hits Speed Bump as Indigeneship Bill Pulled Back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A controversial legislative proposal aimed at redefining citizenship rights in Nigeria has been abruptly withdrawn following mounting opposition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, the bill&#8217;s sponsor and chair of the Constitution Review Committee, announced the withdrawal late Tuesday after what sources describe as intense behind-the-scenes pressure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The proposed legislation &#8211; which sought to grant settlers equal rights with indigenes across states &#8211; had sparked heated debates since its introduction.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The bill&#8217;s shelving comes as co-sponsorship claims unraveled spectacularly. Prominent Lagos lawmaker James Faleke issued a fiery denial of involvement, calling such suggestions &#8220;entirely false and misleading&#8221; in a statement that underscored the proposal&#8217;s dwindling political support.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Kalu&#8217;s office maintains the withdrawal allows for &#8220;further legislative engagements,&#8221; insiders suggest substantial revisions are likely before any reintroduction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The National Institute for Legislative Studies had reportedly flagged implementation challenges, particularly regarding states&#8217; constitutional rights to determine indigene privileges. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A controversial legislative proposal aimed at redefining citizenship rights in Nigeria has been abruptly withdrawn following mounting opposition. Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, the bill&#8217;s sponsor and chair of the Constitution Review Committee, announced the withdrawal late Tuesday after what sources describe as intense behind-the-scenes pressure. The proposed legislation &#8211; which sought to grant settlers equal rights with indigenes across states &#8211; had sparked heated debates since its introduction. The bill&#8217;s shelving comes as co-sponsorship claims unraveled spectacularly. Prominent Lagos lawmaker James Faleke issued a fiery denial of involvement, calling such suggestions &#8220;entirely false and misleading&#8221; in a statement that underscored the proposal&#8217;s dwindling political support. While Kalu&#8217;s office maintains the withdrawal allows for &#8220;further legislative engagements,&#8221; insiders suggest substantial revisions are likely before any reintroduction. The National Institute for Legislative Studies had reportedly flagged implementation challenges, particularly regarding states&#8217; constitutional rights to determine indigene privileges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parliamentary-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26225,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26224\/revisions\/26225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}