Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Hon. Razak Atunwa, at the weekend stated that the Conference of Speakers of the 36 state Houses of Assemblies had agreed to give the harmonised version of the Nigerian Constitution accelerated a speedy consideration.

THISDAY checks revealed that the speakers recently met in Abuja to deliberate on the transmitted harmonised version of the constitution and agreed to return the result to the National Assembly shortly after it re-convenes.

Atunwa, who dropped the hint to journalists in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, said: "Within the shortest possible time, all the state Houses of Assembly would return the result to the National Assembly shortly after it re-commences session.

"By the time the 36 state Houses of Assembly work on the report of the amended constitution, it would assist the people of the country to have quality constitution."

He added that among some portions of the constitution that needed urgent review included the state House of Assembly commission, new revenue allocation formula, local government autonomy, independence of judiciary and states creation.

On recent criticisms of the state government by the Minister of National Planning, Dr. Abubakar Suleiman, Atunwa said: "The Minister has an obsession for attacking Senator Bukola Saraki. He is a minister for the entire nation. I do not think it is proper; it is rather not decorous for him to be attacking personalities.

"I cannot fathom a system in a developed world where a national minister will be discussing and attacking personalities. I do not think that the Chancellor or the Exchequer in the United Kingdom or Secretary of State in United States discussing personalities, no matter the party affiliations they may have.

"I ask myself the question 'doesn't this minister have any work to do? Does he have files on his table to attend to? Doesn't he have the ministry to run?"

"Yet we have neither adequate infrastructure nor progress to boast of; our economic growth is stunted and this is largely due to corruption and lack of transparency. According to the Transparency International, corruption perception Index of 2013/14 rates Nigeria as top 25 in the world most corrupt countries. It says that the country's budgetary provisions and processes are zero in terms of openness and transparency."