Thirty-five members of the House of Representatives have proposed a bill for a single six-year term for Nigeria’s presidency. Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Monday, Ikenga Ugochinyere, accompanied by his colleagues and co-sponsors of the bill, explained that the proposed legislation seeks to establish a six-year term for the president and governors. This bill has already passed its first reading.
The legislators stated that the bill also proposes the rotation of executive powers among Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones to ensure equal representation and reduce the desperation and agitation for state creation. Currently, the 1999 constitution allows for a president to be elected for a four-year term and to be re-elected for an additional four-year term, after which they cannot contest again.
In addition to the presidency term proposal, the lawmakers have put forward several other constitutional amendments related to governance, restructuring, and electoral matters. One key proposal is to amend Section 3 of the constitution to formally recognize the division of Nigeria into six geopolitical zones.
The caucus also proposes creating two vice-presidential positions, one from the northern and one from the southern part of Nigeria. The first vice-president would be a succession vice president, ready to step in if the president becomes incapacitated, while the second vice-president would be a minister in charge of the economy.
For local government reforms, the lawmakers propose financial autonomy and accountability for local government councils. They suggest creating an independent consolidated local government council account managed solely by local councils and introducing severe penalties for the misuse of local government funds. Additionally, if a state government fails to remit funds to local government councils from the federation account, it would not be entitled to future federal allocations.
On electoral reforms, the legislators aim to amend sections of the Electoral Act 2022 to ensure that all elections—presidential, governorship, national assembly, state houses of assembly, and local governments—are held on the same day. They also want to mandate that election results are not declared until they have been verified against the list of accredited voters and the data from the B-VAS machine or any other electronic device.
The bill also includes provisions for holding INEC officers accountable for declaring false election results, proposing that such officers be liable for civil and criminal actions. Furthermore, they propose that all election-related litigations must be resolved before the winners are sworn into office, with a requirement that all election-related documents be made available to those questioning the election results.
The legislators emphasized that these proposals are aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s democracy and electoral system by adopting recommendations from past reform efforts, such as the Justice Uwais electoral reforms, the Senator Ken Nnamani electoral reform committee, and other notable reports. They called on their colleagues to support the bills to ensure they pass through the constitutional amendment process.
For these amendments to become law, they must overcome significant legislative hurdles. According to Sections 9(2) and (3) of the 1999 constitution, each amendment requires the approval of two-thirds of all state assemblies, which equates to 24 states.
