Gender bills rejected, independent candidacy greenlit… how n’assembly voted on constitution amendments

March 2, 2022 8:23 am

The senate and house of representatives, on Tuesday, voted on 68 bills seeking to amend the 1999 constitution.

The voting on the bills were done simultaneously in both chambers.

The red and green chambers agreed on some of the bills and differed on others.

For example, while the senate voted against a bill to provide for an office of a mayor in the federal capital territory (FCT), the house of representatives approved the proposed legislation.

Bills that pass in only one chamber will not make the list of those that will be sent to the state houses of assembly to be voted on.

A total of 43 bills made the cut.

Two-thirds of the state assemblies will have to pass the bills before it is now sent to the president for assent.

Here is how both chambers of the national assembly voted.

Bill	Senate	House of representatives
1. Financial autonomy for LGAs	Yes	Yes
2. Administrative autonomy for LGAs	Yes	Yes
3. Bill to change names of Afikpo north and south LGAs of Bayelsa state	Yes	Yes
4. Bill to change name of Kunchi LGA of Kano state	Yes	Yes
5. Bill to change name of Egbado LGA of Ogun state	Yes	Yes
6. Bill to change name of Barkin Ladi LGA of Plateau state	No	No
7. Bill to correct name of Atigbo LGA of Oyo state	Yes	Yes
8. Bill to correct Obia/Akpor LGA of Rivers state	Yes	Yes
9. Financial autonomy for state legislature and judiciary	Yes	Yes
10. Bill to make persons comply with legislative summons	Yes	Yes
11. Bill to regulate inauguration of national assembly members-elect	Yes	Yes
12. Bill for constitution to recognise National Assembly Civil Service Commission	Yes	No
13. Bill to guide procedure for national assembly to pass a constitutional bill where president refuses assent	No	No
14. Bill to provide procedure for overriding the president’s veto in respect of money bills	No	Yes
15. Bill to provide procedure to remove presiding officers of national assembly	No	No
16. Pension for presiding officers of the national assembly	No	No
17. Bill to establish federal and state revenue court	No	Yes
18. Judicial reforms	No	Yes
19. Timeline for civil and criminal cases	No	Yes
20. Uniformity of retirement age for judicial officers	Yes	Yes
21. Delete reference to provisions of criminal code, penal code, etc	Yes	Yes
22. Time for determining pre-election matters, appeals, etc	Yes	Yes
23. Provision for virtual court hearing	No	Yes
24. Expand the interpretation of judicial office to include courts or tribunals	Yes	Yes
25. Provision of “post call qualification” of secretary of the National Judicial Council (NJC)	Yes	Yes
26. Provision to permit public servants to engage in healthcare, education, production and service beyond farming	Yes	Yes
27. Fair hearing for the removal of judicial officers	Yes	Yes
28. Provision to include judges of National Industrial Court in election tribunals	No	Yes
29. Provision to move airports from exclusive to concurrent list	Yes	Yes
30. To move biometrics and criminal records from exclusive to concurrent list	Yes	Yes
31. Delete prisons from exclusive list and redesignate it as correctional services in concurrent list	Yes	Yes
32. Move railway from exclusive to concurrent list	Yes	Yes
33. Allow states generate and transmit power in areas covered by national grid	Yes	Yes
34. Bill to add VAT to exclusive list	No	No
35. Bill to provide special seats for women at national assembly	No	No
36. Bill to expand scope of citizenship by registration	Yes	No
37. Affirmative action for women in political party administration	No	No
38. Provision for criteria to be indigene of a state in Nigeria	Yes	No
39. Bill to empower RMAFC to enforce remittance of accruals and disbursement from the federation account	Yes	Yes
40. Bill to enhance the independence of certain bodies	Yes	Yes
41. Bill to remove “transitional lawmaking powers” from executive	Yes	Yes
42. Immunity to legislative and judiciary arms of government	No	No
43. Timeline for executive to present treaty to national assembly for domestication	Yes	Yes
44. Timeline for the presentation of budget by president or governor	Yes	Yes
45. Bill to compel president or governor to submit names of ministers or commissioners within 30 days of taking oath of office	Yes	Yes
46. Provision to include presiding officers of national assembly as members of security council	Yes	Yes
47. Provision for the establishment of state security council	Yes	Yes
48. Provision to empower national assembly or state assemblies to summon president or governor on issues they have power to make law	Yes	Yes
49. Limit the period a president or governor can withdraw funds in absence of budgets from six to three months	Yes	Yes
50. To replace Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the federation with CRF of FG	Yes	Yes
51. Bill to establish the office of the accountant-general of the federal government separate from the office of the accountant-general of the federation	Yes	Yes
52. Specify time to conduct a population census	Yes	Yes
53. Bill to detach office of attorney-general of the federation from minister of justice	Yes	Yes
54. Provision for state of the nation address by president	Yes	Yes
55. Provision to include former heads of the national assembly in council of state	Yes	Yes
56. Termination of tenure of elected officials who defect to other political parties	No	No
57. Provision to enhance existing provisions for formation of political parties	Yes	Yes
58. Provision for independent candidacy	Yes	Yes
59. Diaspora voting	No	No
60. Office of mayor of Abuja	No	Yes
61. Appointment of indigenous FCT minister	No	Yes
62. Correct error in dilenation of FCT boundary	Yes	Yes
63. Free, compulsory basic education	Yes	Yes
64. Define acts that constitute torture	No	No
65. Rights to food and food security	Yes	Yes
66. Define core functions of NSCDC	Yes	No
67. Traditional rulers council to advise president, governor	No	Yes
68. Reserve quota for women	No	Yes