The senate has resolved to transmit the “Not too young to run” bill and 11 others to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent. The resolution was taken following the decision of the upper legislative chamber to adopt the conference committee reports on the bills on Tuesday.
Other bills to be transmitted by the Senate include: Authorisation of Expenditure in absence of Appropriation Bill, Financial Autonomy of State Legislatures Bill, the Legislature Bill, Political Parties and Electoral Matters Bill, the Nigeria Police Force Bill and Restriction of Tenure of President and Governor Bill.
Others are: Submission from the Judiciary Bill, Determination of Pre-Election Matters Bill, Consequential Amendment on Civil Defence Bill, Procedure for Overriding Presidential Veto in Constitutional Alteration, and Timeline for the Presentation of Appropriation Bill.
The Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan, who moved the motion, recalled that while the Senate approved 29 of the bills with the required two-third majority of members, the House of Representatives approved 21 of the bills with not less that two-third majority.
He explained that 35 State Houses of Assembly have forwarded their resolution on most of the bills. The states are Abia, Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano and Katsina States.
Others are Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara States. In all, there are 33 bills seeking to alter various provisions of the constitution.
The senate had approved 29 of the bills while the House of Representatives approved 21 of them. Seventeen of them were passed by the two chambers without differences and subsequently transmitted to the State Houses of Assembly for resolution.
The senate then resolved while awaiting the resolutions of the Houses of Assembly, those ready could be sent for presidential assent. The not too young to run bill seeks to reduce the minimum age requirement for elective positions in the country.
It was first passed by the senate and the House of Representatives in July 2017.
The bill seeks to reduce the age qualification for the office of the president from 40 years to 30 years; age for the office of a state governor from 35 to 30; senate from 35 to 30; House of Representatives, from 30 to 25; and State Houses of Assembly, from 30 to 25.
