The House of Representatives has introduced a bill to make room in Nigeria’s Constitution to temporarily fill vacancies in the seat of members of the House of Representatives and the Senate before a bye-election is conducted.
Sponsored by Babajimi Benson (APC, Lagos) the proposed legislation seeks to amend the principal act by empowering the National Chairman of the party of the last occupant of the seat which become vacant to within two days, appoint another person from the same party and the same constituency to occupy the position till a bye-election is held.
The bill also provides that the bye-election where the vacancy to be filled occurred more than 90 days before the Assembly stands dissolved, be conducted within 30 days of the occurrence but, if the vacancy occurs less than 30 days before the dissolution, the member appointed by the National chairman of the party shall occupy the seat until the legislative session ends.
The planned law reads: “The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Cp. 23 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 (in this Bill referred to as “The Principal Act”) is hereby altered as set out hereunder. Section 77 of the Principal Act is hereby amended in sub-section 1 by inserting a new proviso immediately after the word “Assembly” in line 5 as follows:
‘Provided that in the event of vacancy in the seat of a member of the House of Representatives or Senate, the national Chairman of the party of the member who last occupied that seat, after consultation with members of the National Working Committee shall within 48 hours of such vacancy appoint another person from the same political party and the same constituency or senatorial district with the person who last occupied that seat to fill the vacancy in the House or in the Senate as the case may be in the interim pending the time a bye-election is conducted to permanently fill the vacancy in compliance with this section’.
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“Section 77 of the principal Act is hereby amended by creating new sub-section 2 as follows: ‘The bye-election referred to under sub-section 1 herein shall, where the vacancy to be filled occurred more than 90 days before the House stands dissolved, be conducted within 30 days of the occurrence of the vacancy, and where the vacancy occurs less than 90 days of such date, within 14 days’ and where the vacancy occurs less than 30 days before the House stands dissolved, the Member or Senator appointed by the National Chairman of the party shall occupy the seat until the House is dissolved.
“Section 77 of the principal Act is hereby amended by renaming the existing sub-section 2 as the new sub-section 3. This Bill may be cited as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (Alteration) Bill 2022.”
In the present circumstance, if a member of either House of Representatives or Senate dies, resigns or is removed from the seat, the leadership of the chamber of the National Assembly notifies the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
INEC thereafter, fixes the date for a bye-election which takes months as political parties conduct primary election for the nomination of candidates and campaign for votes while the people who are being represented have no representative during the period.
This is as in the case of Abdullahi Adamu, the All Progressive Congress (APC) National Chairman and his deputy, Abubakar Kyari who both resigned from Senate since their emergence in March but INEC is yet to fix the date for the bye-election to fill those vacancies.
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