By Musa Baba Adamu
Former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, has expressed sadness and shock over the death of his predecessor, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, disclosing that he laid the foundation for a successful amendment of the 1999 Constitution.
In a statement issued yesterday by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Uche Anichukwu, Ekweremadu said Nigeria had lost a legislative icon.
He said “I received with a deep sense of loss the passing on of my predecessor, the late Distinguished Senator Ibrahim Mantu. This is a heavy loss to the nation, particularly the legislature where his impact was greatly felt.
“He played critical roles in reinventing the legislature with the advent of the current democratic era.
“In particular, as Deputy President of the Senate and Chairman of the Joint National Assembly Committee on Constitution Amendment, Senator Mantu will be remembered for pioneering the constitution amendment process in the current democratic dispensation in response to agitations over the many inadequacies and contradictions of the 1999 Constitution.
“Although no successful amendment was recorded in the Fifth National Assembly under him, obviously due to lack of template of procedure and experience by a National Assembly that was just truly re-emerging after decades of military rule, the challenges encountered by that attempt ably chaired by Distinguished Senator Mantu helped us to chart a procedure, avoid some pitfalls, and ultimately break the jinx in the Sixth National Assembly. Since then we have gone on to record many critical amendments especially in the areas of electoral reform and institutions building to deepen and strengthen our democracy”.
