[size=14pt]From 2011, president, govs must be graduates *As Senate, Reps amend 1999 Constitution *Differ on cross-carpeting[/size]
Written by Idowu Samuel, Taiwo Adisa and Ayodele Adesanmi, Abuja
Friday, March 26, 2010

THE Senate and the House of Representatives, on Thursday, respectively endorsed the Constitution Amendment Report by the (House) Committee on Constitution Review and passed into law, the electoral reform aspect of the constitution amendment bill.





http://odili.net/news/source/2010/mar/26/600.html

While there were points of convergence in the Thursday resolutions of the two chambers, there were equally points of differences.

As an instance, the two chambers differed on the issue of cross-carpeting. While the House outlawed it, the Senate endorsed it.

The report on constitution amendment presented to the plenary session by the Deputy Speaker, Honourable Usman Nafada, outlawed defection by political office holders, while allowing independent candidacy.

According to the amendments, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly had been granted financial autonomy, as they would now be paid directly from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federation and states.

The approved report also indicated that to become president, vice-president, governor, deputy governor and member of the National Assembly, candidates must possess a degree from a recognised tertiary institution, just as it also indicated that a member of the National Assembly who had served before could contest, even without being a graduate.

An executive summary of the report, which was made available to the Nigerian Tribune, indicated that sections 65, 106, 131 and 171 of the 1999 Constitution was amended to accommodate independent candidacy.

Also, sections 68, 109, 135 and 180 of the constitution was amended to deal with defection, thus making a defector to automatically lose his seat.

According to the amended sections, where a person elected on the ticket of a political party decided to join another political party without evidence of a merger or factions in his former political party, he would vacate his seat.

The amended portion of the constitution also specified that where a person who was elected as an independent candidate became a member of a political party before the expiration of the period of his tenure of office, he would vacate his seat.

Any political office holder who was expelled by his political party, according to the amendment, would retain his seat only if he refrained from joining another political party when his tenure was still on.

Sections 81 and 121 so amended made provisions for inclusion of INEC, National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly for payment in the consolidated revenue fund of the federation and the states.

According to the proposed amendment, section 65, 131 and 177 had been altered to encourage a certain level of academic qualification among contestants into the office of president, vice-president, governors, deputy governors and member of National Assembly, such that contestants for the offices would need to possess a minimum of tertiary institution level or its equivalent, while obtaining relevant certificates of service as a member of the National Assembly for a complete tenure.

Sections 145 and 190 dealt with the periods of election in which a maximum of 60 days to a minimum of 30 days were required before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of the office to a minimum of 120 days and a maximum of 150 days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of that office.

The report also recommended relevant sections of the Nigeria's electoral law to accommodate the alterations and adjustments made in the 1999 Constitution.

Also, on Thursday, the Senate passed the electoral reform aspect of the constitution amendment bill into law, with the approval for a change in the time for holding general election which could see the next election holding between January and March 2011.

The senators had voted in favour of the amendment of all the clauses of the electoral reform bill on Wednesday, but they deferred the passage of the bill for the third and final reading because of the discovery of the omission of Section 109 and errors on other aspects of the bill.

The Senate thus directed that the errors be corrected and the bill represented for final passage on Thursday.

The bill passed by the Senate indicated that general election would hold, not earlier than 150 days before the expiration of the term of office of the office holder and not later than 90 days before the expiration of the tenure.

Another feature of the bill is the approval of the nominees for resident electoral commissioners (RECs) by the Senate, which were, before now, appointed by the president.

The senators, also on Thursday, approved the missing Section 109 of the constitution to pave the way for cross carpeting by members of the Houses of Assembly.

It was also approved that anyone who would seek elective office must be a university graduate or its equivalent, besides that he must be a citizen of Nigeria by birth, attained the age of 40 years and sponsored by a political party of which he is a member.

The amendments also provided time frames for the disposal of election petitions before the swearing in a and general conduct of elections.

there is no extent nigerians will not go to in order to celebrate ignorance.what does this really mean?a colonized mentality?do you need to enshrine this in the constitution?does Western education mean you will be a good leader?most leaders will be graduates anyway.even in the UK,it is not a law.yet,most of their leaders attended oxbridge.Is Gani Adams not better than most graduates at running a group(militant or not)?degrees are Western certification-pure and simple!i know it(a degree)makes you a better person but not always.we are obsessed with western education and certificates but there is no indication it has helped us.you keep producing mechanical engineers who can not make pins.retarded people.idiots.

ps:
before you shout on me,please note:i have many of these certificates-acquired in 2 continents.

Degree is not the issue.
See these people with inferiority complex.
Nigeria needs Men and Women who are genuinely progressive and patriotic to be leaders.

SapeleGuy:

Degree is not the issue.
See these people with inferiority complex.
Nigeria needs Men and Women who are genuinely progressive and patriotic to be leaders.

please tell them.i think it stems from insecurity.is that why they make university education hard through JAMB?yet,they find a way for their children to get in without knowing,eh,did i say jack.

I still talked about this with a friend of mine recently. this is a good move.although people will abused it later. i am sick of tired of all this illiterates knowing nothing about Nigeria's system and all they think about is their pocket .

Primary school holder can contest for,  is it local government or chancellor or something. i mean,what has this assholes got in thier head to dictate. Get educated and you will understand how things work


The main problem in Nigeria is simple. Administration and management. Here in Uk, that what makes them what they are. Uk is not so much a technology driven country but they manage their stuff well here and there are bodies that ensure people do the right thing. How will a primary school holder who was playing football about when his mates are going to school understand how to run a country.

This politicians make me sick . the worst of it was when they gave USA 7 days to remove them from terrorist list and before 7days,this bastards have already changed thier minds . i mean WTF. Cant you stand your  grounds for ones and stop acting like puppets

Bad news for Alao Akala

Aloy+Emeka:


The senators, also on Thursday, approved the missing Section 109 of the constitution to pave the way for cross carpeting by members of the Houses of Assembly.

It was also approved that anyone who would seek elective office must be a university graduate or its equivalent, besides that he must be a citizen of Nigeria by birth, attained the age of 40 years and sponsored by a political  party of which he is a member.

Cross carpetting on the scale that these people anticipate means the PDP is finished, they also don't want independent candidates or Nigerians born abroad to contest. Chadians and people from Niger republic will continue to be classified as nigerians.

The funny thing about this is that these people are discriminating against their own children because their wives go abroad to give birth.

Amidst all of this, we are in a country with 2 presidents - a fact they have conveniently ignored, and they still have the temerity to blame illiterates.

why can't you guys think clearly?most of the guys at federal level since independence have some sort of degrees.has your lot been bettered as a result of this?do you know you can easily buy degrees with money?i can see a rise in bought certificates.morons.

may be some of you don't know that sandhurst and andershot are first-class institutions.is that FOI bill they should be debating?

^^ you dey mind dem - bloody 419 people.

LOL - thanks for the tip, I think I will register Sapele University - Accelerated learning internet style. Pay your money take your choice.

person wey get degree no dey thief?

ola olabiy,

Remember Shagari TC2, so your assertion is optimistic assumption far from fact. If we go down the skeptic route how many of our so called leaders truly earned these qualifications they claim to have ??

It is believed that education widens your view and ability to be innovative again this is an assumption, I know quite a few educated illiterates.

Furthermore we know in the last decade standards have dropped considerably, the proliferation of all kinds of tertiary institutions puts a big question mark on the credibility of qualifications awarded by a number of these institutions.

Certificate manipulation by any means possible existed before, but it has now become rife. Will raising the educational qualification bar, make a difference; don’t think so, just more money for corrupt academics. It will create a new dimension in the manipulations of online degrees from overseas red brick universities by Nigerians.

Finally even if they are caught nothing happens anyway, remember Turais brother in law controller general of customs, Abdullahi Dikko and his forgery of school certificate etc, etc.

Sapeleguy, I agree with you in principle but with qualification, character, integrity, selflessness coupled to true education make a winning combination visionary leadership.

violent:

Bad news for Alao Akala

Alao Akala is an European trained engineer. Sorry to disappoint you.

Aloy+Emeka:

Alao Akala is an European trained engineer. Sorry to disappoint you.

Please, where is your source ? I just read his bio and there was no mention of this.

Surely not everybody will be Governors or President but aspiring to the highest office in the land is the symbol of HOPE in any society. To suggest that those who make the choice to take the apprentice Route (as opposed to formal education) by so doing are simply shutting themselves off from aspiring for the highest office in the land is a very wrong policy.

It will have greater impact to our society and National psyche. Immagine the harm a prefference for University degree as opposed to Polytechnic Degree is already doing to us in terms of producing graduates with the right technical skills for our Engineering industry.

We should stop legislating segregation (who has a degree and who does not) and keep faith in our electoral system while strengthening it. The most dynamic way to decide the character and qualifications of a man to lead is through the voting process. "Let the people vote"
Let no one seat on their back side and decide for the rest of the country who can vote or who can be voted for. The right to vote and be voted for is an inallienable right given to all Nigerians and enshrined in our constitution. But what our Senators seem to be saying is that except you have a degree you have not right to be voted for.

This group of fellows will do us more good if they pass the FOI Bill and pass laws to strengthen the electoral process. This business of raising the bar to degree level when a sizable section of our society have no degree makes no sense. The current bar of School Certificate is ok because litterarily almost every Nigerian has an SSCE.

I hope the bill is defeated in other house or vetoed by the President. This is a very very dumb bill.

It is a welcome development. Even chairman of local government should be on that list, senators, house of representative too.

This may even make those who believe in the system even Narrower.

Because if I have no degree, I will not queue to vote for anybody in a system that legally shuts me out and says I have no right to partake someday.

I don't know how much debating they do in the house before passing bills but this bill is a disgrace.

The fact i can't reconcile is that Nigerians born abroad can not stand for office. So in effect they are now second class citizens. It seems the only brain these people have is to thief.

gud idea. now they can back their theft with gud certificate. why not masters

Sapele guy,

If both you’re parents are Nigerian and you happened to be born abroad you therefore have no legal entitlement to stand for election or vote in Nigeria, I very much doubt what you are saying.

Reference this your assertion with the relevant act or acts of law please.

The term Degree is far from definitive, in my opinion it is indicative of competence but not an absolute measurement of ability.

Nonetheless, to carry out certain responsibilities one just has to have a certain level of competency more so in a nation like ours.

I am not against the idea but welcome it in some respects however, what about truth, honesty, integrity, honour and right character a degree cannot and should not be the only yardstick for the measurement of ability for elective office.

Jaylon:

Please, where is your source ?  I just read his bio and there was no mention of this.

Still in search of more knowledge, Otunba (Dr) Alao-Akala capped it all with further studies at Nigeria's premier high institution, the University of Ibadan.



Dr Alao Akala PhD



I think they missed his engineering degree from the Leeds University.

I support the idea of obtaining some degree / having some level of education. Thats not a guarantee that those elected officials with their degree will be wonderful but it atleast sets some standards in a nation where standards doesn't exist. But they also have to check the level of corruption in the nations learning institututions coz I've come across some Nigerians claiming to have studied and graduated from a Nigerian University but act like common omata man.

As for citizenship. That makes no sense. If 1 or both parent is Nigerian I see no reason why the person  should be denied the right to run for office. Being born abroad or in Nigeria is something that the person can't control so why use that against them? What happened to dual citizenship? What have so called homeborn Nigerians shown to prove that they possess better leadership quality than the ones born abroad?

Aloy+Emeka,

Unfortunately our universities have not escaped the canker worm of corruption as a result it is possible to get a PhD and a degree from almost all of our universities without fulfilling the obligations of academic study. The question is how connected you are and or how much you can pay.

Without mentioning names I always wonder how busy politicians (busy stealing, scheming and networking) could complete all sorts of higher qualifications with the very limited time they have whether they do it full time or part time doesn’t really matter. It takes a lot of discipline a trait very far away from most of our politicians.

As a lot of nairalanders will attest studying is time consuming, then doing a higher degree by research even more so, it just does not add up, all these middle age politicians with heavy schedules completing a whole rang of higher degrees- - - too many questions NO ANSWER

Are you not aware that in Nigeria, many Okada drivers have degree's?

This should be seen as a minor requirement.

How about it is written into the constitution that Governors/Presidents/Senator must have morals?

We would be struglling to fill the posts.

Fact!

Yar Adua has a Degree, and was a Chemistry teacher for a number of years before taking position as Governor of Katsina State for 8 years where he instituted Sharia Law, and then went to hold a whole country of 150 million individuals hostage for almost 4 years, as president. What has a DEGREE to do with good government?

was katsina the only state that instituted sharia law?

Does that matter? Does that even answer the question asked?

yes it does, since you're misrepresenting facts

Misrepresenting what fact there? Please tell me what, in what I have posted there is misrepresented.

lmao, so having a degree is gonna make Nigeria's leaders wiser so they could lead development in the nation? Sorry to break it to ya, but the only thing a degree gets you is this:[img]http://1.bp..com/_FzOFOVBFaS8/SSQwDz-nP-I/AAAAAAAADtw/EZIPjfFa0M0/s400/george_w_bush.jpg[/img]