President Buhari on Thursday, 31st May 2018 signed a 4th Constitution Alteration Bill seeking to reduce the age qualification for aspirants running for the office of President, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly respectively.
The amendments to sections 131, 65(b) and 106 of the Constitution respectively mean that the age qualification for President has been reduced from 40 years to 35 years while Members of the House of Representatives or the State House of Assembly must be at least 25 years to run for such position. This is a departure from the age criteria of 30 years under previous law.
Interestingly, the provision for running for Senate and Governor remain at 35 years as no amendment was made here.
It is noteworthy that fourteen other transmitted Bills seeking to amend the Constitution remain pending.