The House of Representatives at its plenary session of Wednesday 18 April 2018 adopted the returns of the State Houses of Assembly on the Constitution Alteration Bills, 2018 that met the requirements of Section 9 (2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Section 9(2) of the 1999 Constitution requires an alteration of the Constitution to take place only after its proposal is passed by no less than two-thirds majority of all the members of each chamber of the National Assembly and consequently approved by a resolution of at least 24 State Houses of Assembly. The House has now promised to process the Bills that meet the requirements in a manner that complies with the Acts Authentication Act before transmission to the President for assent.
Presenting the motion on the floor of the House, House majority leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila (APC: Lagos) read the provisions of Section 9(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) outlining the procedure of Constitution alteration. He also gave a brief synopsis of the said Bills stating that out of the Thirty-three (33) Bills seeking to alter various provisions of the Constitution initially presented at the Senate and the House of Representatives for voting on Wednesday 26th July and Thursday, 27th July 2017 respectively, the Senate had passed Twenty-nine (29) Bills with the required 2/3 majorities of Members while the House of Representatives had passed Twenty-one (21) Bills with the same majority.
However, he said that while 15 bills were eventually transmitted to the State Houses of Assembly for adoption as they were passed without differences, 4 Bills were committed to a Conference Committee in the National Assembly for further legislative action.
Hon. Gbajabiamila also noted that thirty-five State Houses of Assembly – (Abia, Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross-River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara,) have forwarded their resolutions on the Bills transmitted to them. Lagos State is yet to vote on the Constitutional Alteration Bills.
Furthermore, he gave a breakdown on how States voted on the 12 Constitution Alteration Bills that were passed by at least 24 State Houses of Assembly as envisaged by section 9(2) of the 1999 Constitution and will now be transmitted to the President for assent. The Bills are :
- (i) Constitution (Fourth Alteration) Bill No 2 (Authorization of Expenditure in absence of Appropriation); Yes: 28 States, No: 6 States, Abstain: 1 State.
- (ii) Constitution (Fourth Alteration) Bill No 4 (Financial Autonomy of State legislatures); Yes: 33 States, No: 1 State, Abstain: 1 State.
- (iii) Constitution (Fourth Alteration) Bill No 8 (The Legislature); Yes: 34 States, No: 1 State.
- (iv) Constitution (Fourth Alteration) Bill No 9 (Political parties and Electoral Matters); Yes: 32 States, No: 1 State, Abstain: 2 States.
- (v) Constitution (Fourth Alteration) Bill No 15 (The Nigeria Police Force); Yes: 34 States, No: 1 State.
- (vi) Constitution (Fourth Alteration) Bill No 16 (Restriction of Tenure of President and Governor); Yes: 32 States, No: 2 State, Abstain: 1 State.
- (vii) Constitution (Fourth Alteration) Bill No 20 (Submission from the Judiciary); Yes: 29 States, No: 2 State, Abstain: 4 States.
- (viii) Constitution (Fourth Alteration) Bill No 21 (Determination of Pre-Election Matters); Yes: 33 States, Abstain: 2 State.
- (ix) Constitution (Fourth Alteration) Bill No 22 (Consequential Amendment on Civil Defence); Yes: 27 States, No: 1 State, Abstain: 7 State.
- (x) Constitution (Fourth Alteration) Bill No 24 (Procedure for Overriding Presidential Veto in Constitutional Alteration); Yes: 24 States, No: 8 States, Abstain: 3 States.
- (xi) Constitution (Fourth Alteration) Bill No 27 (Reduction of Age for Election); Yes: 33 States, Abstain: 2 States.
- (xii) Constitution (Fourth Alteration) Bill No 28 (Time Line for the Presentation of Appropriations Bill); Yes: 27 States, No: 6 States, Abstain: 2 States.
