Bill to Raise Academic Qualification for President, Governors, Other Elective Offices Passes Second Reading

•Proposed legislation for vaccine devt centre also scales second reading

Udora Orizu in Abuja

The House of Representatives at plenary yesterday passed for second reading, a bill seeking to amend the 1999 Constitution to raise the academic qualification for office of the President, Governors, State and National Assembly members from school certificate to university degree or its equivalent.

The proposed legislation titled: ‘A Bill for an Act to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, Cap. C23, Laws of the Federation, 2004, to Review the Required Educational Qualification for Election into Certain Political Offices and for Related Matters’, was sponsored by Hon. Adewunmi Oriyomi Onanuga, (APC, Ogun).

Leading the debate on its general principles, Onanuga said the bill was not targeted at stifling the interest of Nigerians in politics, explaining that rather, it would help Nigerians to sufficiently prepare for the humongous task of political leadership.

She opined that it was unfair to demand a university degree and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate from a graduate or anyone applying for strategic position in a company, while those seeking for political offices would be allowed to have only school certificate.

Onanuga said: “As we have begun to see, the race for elective offices at both states and national level have become increasingly competitive. This can be counterproductive if people who are not sufficiently prepared educationally gets into these elective offices.

“All the political offices affected by this amendment are very strategic in their own right, the office of the governor is the highest political office in the state, the federal legislators are important for making laws in the interest of the nation.

“The office of the president is the highest political office in the country. If a managing director who holds an equally strategic position in a company within this country, cannot be employed without a university degree or its equivalent, while should political offices be held by people without a university degree or its equivalent?”
When put to a voice vote by the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Idris Wase who presided over the session, it got the support of majority of the lawmakers.

In a related development, the House of Representatives yesterday passed for second reading a bill seeking to establish Nigeria Centre for Vaccine Research and Development.

The proposed legislation sponsored by Hon. Kasimu Bello Maigari received the unanimous support of the lawmakers who took turns to contribute on the importance of the bill.

Leading the debate on its general principles, Maigari noted that there were so many diseases unknown to other nations existing in Nigeria, hence the need for the nations to develop their specific vaccines.

He said if the bill was passed into law, it would help researchers in terms of developing vaccines to ensure diseases existing in Nigeria are taken care of.

The lawmaker said: “We expended billions just to procure vaccine for COVID-19. There’s so many diseases that are unknown to other nations, that are not even aware of the existence of these diseases in our country.

“We are the only people that can develop these vaccines. Malaria for instance is killing many Nigerians on daily basis. This bill if passed it will help the whole nation to develop our own vaccine and to save a lot of billions we expend annually.

“Bill gates established the same type of research center in America which is developing hundreds of millions of vaccines yearly, whereas in the whole of Africa we don’t have any vaccine developing center.”

On his part, the Minority leader, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu said it became very imperative that Nigeria should have a vaccine centre to research, specifically for vaccines.

Also at the plenary, the lawmakers passed for third reading a Bill for an Act to Repeal the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency Act, Cap. N90, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and Enact the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency Bill to provide Efficient Air Navigation Services in Nigeria, Ensure Safety and Regulation of Air Navigation in Nigeria.