A bill seeking to increase the educational qualification for election into the office of the president has passed first reading at the House of Representatives.
The Constitution Alteration Bill sponsored by Adewunmi Onanuga also seeks to raise the qualification for a governor, state and federal lawmaker to at least a university degree level or its equivalent.
Sections 65, 106, 131 and 177 of the 1999 constitution state that a person must be qualified for election into the aforementioned elective offices if he/she “has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent.”
The bill would be scheduled for second reading, where lawmakers would debate its general principles, in the next couple of days.
If it scales through, it would be referred to the House Special Ad-hoc Committee on the Review of the Constitution for further legislative actions.
Thereafter, it would be subjected to vote at the plenary, where it must be supported by at least 240 members of the 360 House, as well as 73 senators, before it would be transmitted to the state assemblies for another round of voting.
Section 9 (2) of the constitution states that “an Act of the National Assembly for the alteration of this Constitution, not being an Act to which section 8 of this Constitution applies, shall not be passed in either House of the National Assembly unless the proposal is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of all the members of that House and approved by resolution of the Houses of Assembly of not less than two-thirds of all the states.”
Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila had also said there was a need to amend the constitution to increase the academic qualification for elective offices.
“I also sincerely believe that the national assembly needs to look into section 131 (d) of the 1999 constitution with a view to increasing the minimum educational qualification for persons aspiring to be future presidents of Nigeria and other top offices including the national assembly as against the current minimum requirement of a secondary school certificate or its equivalent,” Gbajabiamila had said.
