The National Assembly has approved proposed amendments to the 1999 constitution, chief among them are independent candidacy in elections and financial autonomy to state legislatures, judiciary and the 774 local government areas in the country.
Both red and green chambers voted on the report of the ad hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bills, 2022.
The chambers, however, rejected pension and immunity for presiding officers of the legislature, special parliamentary seats for women, diaspora voting and inclusion of Value-Added Tax (VAT) in the Exclusive Legislative List.
The two chambers of the National Assembly also turned down a bill to provide for more seats for women in the National and State Houses of Assembly, despite the presence of the Vice President’s wife, Dolapo Osinbajo in the chamber.
Like the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, the vice president’s wife, was at the National Assembly to witness voting on constitution alteration bills and canvas support for provisions on women issues.
The proposed amendment suffered a setback after 30 senators voted in favour, while 58 voted against.
In the House, 81 voted in favour of the bill, 208 voted against it.
The bill seeks to reserve solely for women in each state of the federation one senatorial seat, two House of Representatives seats and in the Houses of Assembly one additional seat from each of the three Senatorial districts.
Also, a proposal to include at least 35 per cent of women in political party administration also failed to scale through in both chambers.
However, Senate and House differed on the proposal to provide a minimum percentage of women nominees as ministers and commissioners.
While the Red Chamber rejected the bill, the House approved that 20 per cent of women be included in both federal and state cabinets.
State to generate power, run airports, prisons
Lawmakers in both chambers also passed proposals to allow state governments to generate, transmit and distribute electricity in areas covered by the national grid.
They also approved the movement of railways and correctional services from the Exclusive to the Concurrent List.
Also passed by the two chambers are bills to empower the National Assembly and State Assemblies to summon the president and state governors to answer questions bothering on the security issue and inclusion of presiding officers on the membership of the National Security Council.
