Bill to strip President, governors’ powers to proclaim new N/Assembly, state legislatures passes second reading - The Nation Newspaper (2025)

March 26, 2025 by Tony Akowe, Abuja

• Reps also okay state police proposed law, 37 others

A bill to strip the President and governors of power to proclaim a new session of the National and state Houses of Assembly was among 39 proposed laws that scaled second reading in the House of Representatives yesterday.

The 1999 Constitution confers powers on the President and the governors to issue proclamations to be read by the Clerks of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly before the inauguration of new lawmakers for legislative activities.

Without such proclamation, no Assembly will function and no President or governor would operate constitutionally in the absence legislative arm of government.

Another major bill that passed the process without a debate by the House members is seeking a reform of the nation’s electoral system to ensure among others, that all litigations ended before the inauguration of election winners.

Others include those seeking the creation of state police and special legislative seats for Persons With Disability (PWD) as well as Special interest groups.

Leader of the House, Julius Ihonvbere, asked for the suspension of the House rules to take the second reading of the bills together. There was no objection.

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This was after Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, who presided asked Ihonvbere to do so.

The bills were segmented into six—13 on electoral matters, 10 on judicial reform, seven on Legislature, three on inclusive governance, one on security and five others.

One of the bills sponsored by Speaker Abbas Tajudeen seeks an amendment to the 1999 Constitution to make the recommendations of the National Judicial Council(NJC) mandatory for the removal of the head of a court either by the President or a governor.

There is also a proposed law that seeks an establishment of an Ecclesiastical Court of Appeal for the Federation, the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) as well as another for the Court of Appeal to be the final court for governorship and legislative elections.

Other bills on electoral reforms want provision for the regulation of election timelines by the Electoral Act and a provision for members of parliament wishing to defect to first resign from their political party.

They also seek to alter the constitution to extend the original jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal to include election petitions arising from the governorship and deputy governorship polls.

Part of the bill also seeks to give the National Assembly power to alter timelines for election tribunals and compulsory resignation of National and State Executive members of political parties seeking elective positions.

In addition, the bills want an amendment to the constitution for presidential, governorship, National and House of Assembly polls to be conducted simultaneously on the same day determined by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in consultation with the National Assembly.

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