Ojema Ojotu, a member of the house of representatives, is proposing a bill to include power rotation in the constitution for all elections.
Ojotu is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
representing Apa/Agatu federal constituency of Benue state.
The bill, which is yet to be listed for first reading,
proposes to amend sections 133, 179, 48, and 49 of the constitution to rotate
the office of the president among the six geopolitical zones, with each state
holding the presidency for a maximum of two terms.
The proposed legislation aims to prevent the geopolitical
zones that have previously produced presidents since May 1999 from doing so
again, until all other zones have had the opportunity to produce a president.
The north-east, north-central, and south-east geopolitical zones have not produced presidents since 1999.
The draft bill also seeks to rotate the office of the
governor among the three senatorial zones within a state, as well as senatorial
elections among all federal constituencies within a senatorial zone.
It also seeks to prohibit a LGA from producing a member of
the house of representatives for the second time of asking, until all LGAs
within the federal constituency have had their turns.
THE PROPOSED
AMENDMENTS
The bill proposes to add subsections 2, 3 and 4 to section
133 to read thus; “(2) The office of the President of Nigeria shall revolve
around the six Geopolitical Zones, with each State holding the office for a
maximum of two terms of four years each, to give every section and State in
Nigeria a sense of inclusion, participation and representation in Nigeria’s democracy.
“(3) Any zone in Nigeria which has produced a President of
the Federal Republic shall not be eligible to produce another President until
the other Zones take their turns.
“(4) the effective date for consideration in the rotation of
power shall be 29th of May, 1999 when the Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria (as amended) became effective.
Subsections 6 and 7 is being proposed to amend section 179 to
read as follows; “(6) The office of the Governor of a State in Nigeria shall
revolve round all the three Senatorial Zones in the State, to give every
indigene of the State a sense of inclusion, participation and representation in
the development of the State.
“(7) every Senatorial Zone in a State which has produced
Governor of that State in a democratically conducted election shall not be
eligible to produce a Governor, unless and until other Senatorial Zones produce
Governors of the State.
The amendment to section 48 is to add subsections (1) (a)
(b) to read thus; “(1) (a) Senatorial election shall rotate round all the
Federal Constituencies in the Senatorial Zone to give a sense of inclusion,
participation and representation in the Constituencies to engineer social
progress and development.
“(b) every Federal Constituency in a Senatorial District
which has produced a Senator shall not be eligible to produce a Senator, unless
and until all other Federal Constituencies produce a Senator.
Also, two subsections (1)(a) (b) is being proposed to alter
section 49 to state that “(1) a. every Local Government which has produced a
Member of House of Representatives shall not be eligible to produce a Member of
House of Representatives upon cessation of tenure, unless and until all Local
Governments in the Federal Constituency produces a Member of House of
Representatives.
“(b) provided the occupant of an office in (b) above shall
have served a full term of four years or any number of terms that Electorates
validated through an election.”
If the bill is presented before the house, it has to pass
through several legislative hurdles, including obtaining the approvals of the
state houses of assemblies and presidential assent before it can become law.
A similar bill was thrown out in the 9th assembly.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com