Members of the House of Representatives, on resumption from the Sallah recess, are expected to commence debate on the general principles of a bill seeking the conduct all elections on the same day.
The private member bill, sighted exclusively by the Nigerian Tribune, was sponsored by Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Honourable Francis Waive.
Recall that a group of 35 members of the 10th House of Representatives called Reformers, had penultimate week hinted on plans to introduce about 50 bills.
According to the spokesman of the group, Honourable Ikenga Ugochinyere, the bills cover governance, economic, security, and justice sector reforms, as well as social bills that will target unifying our nation and ensuring long-lasting peace and national cohesion.
He said members of the group: “are proposing bills to address capture and corruption in our electoral processes to include amending the relevant sections of the Electoral Act to ensure that “all elections (presidential, governorship, National Assembly, State Houses of Assembly, and Local Governments) are held on the same day.”
In the bill sighted by the Nigerian Tribune, Honourable Waive advocated the alteration of CAP. C23, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 of the Nigerian Constitution and for related matters.
Waive further seeks to alter Sections 76(1), 116(1), 132(1), 178(1) and Third Schedule Part 1 Sub-heading F Paragraph 15 of the Constitution (as amended).
Clause 1 of the bill, seeks to amend Section 76 subsection (1) of the principal act as follows: “Elections to each House of the National Assembly shall be held on a date to be appointed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) provided that all elections are conducted on same day.”
He equally seeks to amend Section 116 subsection (1) of the principal act as follows: “Elections to a House of Assembly shall be held on a date to be appointed by the Independent National Electoral Commission provided that all elections are conducted on same day.”
Clause 4 of the proposed legislation wants to alter section 132 subsection (1) of the principal act as follows: “An election to the office of President shall be held on a date to be appointed by the Independent National Electoral Commission provided that all elections are conducted on same day.”
In Clause 5, the bill canvassed for the amendment of Section 178 subsection (1) of the Principal Act as follows: “An election to the office of Governor of a State shall be held on a date to be appointed by the Independent National Electoral Commission provided that all elections are conducted on same day.
“Amendment of Third Schedule Part 1 by inserting a new sub-paragraph (b) and the existing paragraph (b)- (i) be renumbered accordingly as follows:
15.”(b) Subject to paragraph 15(a) of this schedule, all elections to the offices of the president and vice president, the governor and deputy governor of a State, and to the membership of the Senate, the House of Representatives and the House of Assembly of each State of the Federation shall be conducted in one (1) day.”
The Bill is to be cited as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Amendment) Bill, 2024.
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