Senate Throws Out 6-Year Single Tenure, Autonomy for LGs
The Senate has thrown out the proposal of a six-year single tenure for the president and state governors.
It was not a surprising decision as the debate last week showed which way the lawmakers would swing.
On
resumption of plenary this week, the lawmakers engaged in a clause by
clause vote of areas for review in the 1999 constitution, an engagement
which lasted for almost five hours.
They
however adopted clause 9 of the draft bill which empowers the national
assembly to make an entirely new constitution for the country.
They also adopted section 3a of the draft which rejects the president’s assent on the amended constitution before taking effect.
However,
the lawmakers rejected autonomy for local governments, a move that
comes across as surprising because many lawmakers during the
constitutional review debate last week appeared to be favourably
disposed to autonomy for local governments as 59 lawmakers voted for
local government autonomy, while 38 voted against bearing in mind that
73 votes are needed for any clause to be passed.
The
Senators also rejected the inclusion of the Attorney General of the
Federation for first line charge and the separation of the office of the
attorney general from the minister of justice.
In a vote that was taken twice, the lawmakers voted against the removal of prisons from the exclusive list.
The
senators also endorsed life pension for the president and deputy
president of the senate as well as the speaker and deputy speaker of the
House of Representatives.
The
recommendation that a bill automatically becomes law if the president
fails to assent to it after 30 days of transmission was also approved.
However clause 4 of the bill caused controversy on the floor of the senate.
The
committee recommended alteration of section 29 of the constitution that
deals with the manner of renunciation of citizenship.
The
constitution states that full age means eighteen years and above and
the committee proposed a removal of part b of the clause which states
that any woman that is married shall be deemed to be of full age.