A vice president or deputy governor who completes the tenure of his principal can, henceforth, seek election for only one term, according to a bill signed into law yesterday by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Act of Bill No.16 is a component part of the Constitution Alteration Bill.
Also signed into law yesterday was Bill No 4 which grants financial autonomy and independence to the state Houses of Assembly and the judiciary at the state level.
Briefing State House correspondents on the development, the Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly matters (Senate), Ita Enang, said the intent of Bill No. 16 is to ensure that “where a Vice President succeeds a President or a Deputy Governor succeeds a Governor, he can no more contest for that office more than once more.
“The fact is that having taken the oath as President once and you can only contest for the office once again and no more.”
Had the law been in place in 2010 when the then President Umaru Yar’Adua died,his deputy, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, would have been eligible to contest only the 2011 election.
Enang said the Financial Independence Bill for state Houses of Assembly and judiciaries allows the legislative arm and the judiciaries in the states to receive their budgetary allocations direct from the Federal Ministry of Finance.
He said: “The amount due to the judiciary is now to be paid directly to the judiciaries of those states, no more through the governors.
”Therefore, upon this signature, the amount standing to the credit of the judiciary is now to be paid directly to the judiciary of that state, no more through the governor and no more from the governors.
”And then the amounts standing to the credit of the Houses of Assembly of the respective states are now to be paid directly to the Houses of Assembly of those states for the benefit of the legislature and the management of the state Houses of Assembly.
”This grants full autonomy now to the judiciary at the state level and the Houses of Assembly.”
Besides, the President signed into law the Constitution Amendment No. 21 which relates to determination of pre-election matters.
This has reduced the days and time of determining pre-election matters to ensure that pre-election matters in courts do not get into the time of election and do not pend thereafter.
There is also Bill No. 9 which gives the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) sufficient time to conduct bye-elections.
In effect, the period allowed for the conduct of bye-elections has been increased from seven to 21 days.
Enang said:”These four bills added to the “Not Too Young To Run’’ Act have now been assented to by Mr President and they have now become laws.
“And then the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended is hereby further amended by the assents of Mr. President to these bills .’’ he said.