…rejects Diaspora voting, and special seats for woman

Olusola  Bello

The National Assembly on Tuesday granted financial and administrative autonomy to all the local governments across Nigeria as it sought to amend the 1999 constitution.

Lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly voted on 68 bills, accepting some while rejecting others.

They voted for independent candidacy in elections and separated the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation from that of the Minister of Justice.

However, lawmakers voted against pension for presiding officers of the National Assembly and rejected virtually all provisions designed to improve women inclusion in Nigerian politics and society.

The amendment is one of the most important endeavours to be undertaken by the ninth assembly.

Previous assemblies have had a go at amending the constitution with varying levels of success.

The bills seek to amend the Constitution to repeal the state joint local government account and provide for a special account where all allocations due to the local governments councils, from the federation account and state government shall be paid.

In the bill, each local government council is to create and maintain its own special account to be called Local Government Allocation Account into which all the allocations will be paid.

The legislations also mandate each state to pay to local government councils in its area of jurisdiction such proportion of its internally generated revenue on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly.

For administrative autonomy, the bill seeks to allow local governments to conduct their own elections.

The lawmakers also voted in favour of financial autonomy for State Houses of Assembly and judiciary.

During the voting process, the Senate witnessed over 73 votes – the threshold required for such bills to pass.

Voters in Africa’s most populous nation will go to the polls to elect a new president and parliament in February 2023. Hopes that Nigeria’s diaspora would take part were dashed when only 29 senators out of the 92 present supported the provision.

For a constitutional bill to pass, it requires the support of at least two-thirds of the 109-member senate.

Nigeria’s diaspora population was estimated at 1.7 million as of 2020 by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Another provision to create special seats for women in the National and State Assemblies was rejected by a majority of senators. Aisha Buhari, the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, had supported the bill. President Buhari is set to step down after two terms next year.

Elections in Nigeria are an indicator of how men dominate politics in the country of 200 million people. During the last election in 2019, 47% of registered voters were women but they occupy only 6.5% of national assembly seats.

Nigeria has never elected a woman president or state governor.

The Senate, however, passed a bill to empower the National and State Assemblies to summon the President and state governors to answer questions on national security and other issues.

The lawmakers voted electronically.