Nigerian Senate rejects diaspora vote, special seats for women
LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's Senate on Tuesday voted to reject changes to the constitution to allow citizens living abroad to vote in national elections, while a provision to allocate special seats for women to increase their political representation failed to pass.
© Reuters/AFOLABI SOTUNDE FILE PHOTO: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari's wife Aisha Buhari holds a voting ballot as she attends Nigeria's presidential election at a polling station in Daura, Katsina State, Nigeria, February 23, 2019
Voters in Africa's most populous nation will go to the polls to elect a new president and parliament in February 2023. Hopes that Nigeria's diaspora would take part were dashed when only 29 senators out of the 92 present supported the provision.
For a constitutional bill to pass, it requires the support of at least two-thirds of the 109-member senate.
Nigeria's diaspora population was estimated at 1.7 million as of 2020 by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Another provision to create special seats for women in the National and State Assemblies was rejected by a majority of senators. Aisha Buhari, the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, had supported the bill. President Buhari is set to step down after two terms next year.
Elections in Nigeria are an indicator of how men dominate politics in the country of 200 million people. During the last election in 2019, 47% of registered voters were women but they occupy only 6.5% of national assembly seats.
Nigeria has never elected a woman president or state governor.
The Senate, however, passed a bill to empower the National and State Assemblies to summon the President and state governors to answer questions on national security and other issues.
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Editing by William Maclean)
Again, Buhari travels for medical reasons without transmitting power to Osinbajo
The last time Mr Buhari handed over to his deputy while embarking on personal (medical) trips was in 2018.
ByKabir Yusuf
Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, is set to travel out of the country for about two weeks, largely for personal health treatment, but has refused to transfer power to his deputy on an interim basis as constitutionally expected.
Mr Buhari’s office announced Tuesday that the president will depart Nigeria for Kenya on a three-day official visit after which he will “proceed to London for routine medical checks that will last for a maximum of two weeks.”
The Nigerian constitution provides that when the president is going on vacation or is unable to discharge the functions of his office, he will notify the National Assembly and temporarily transfer power to his deputy.
“WHENEVER the President is proceeding on vacation or is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, he SHALL transmit a written declaration to the president of the Senate and the speaker of the house of representatives to that effect, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, the Vice-President shall perform the functions of the President as Acting President,” Section 145(1)(2) of the Nigerian Constitution states.
In its statement on Tuesday, the president’s office did not provide details of the ‘medical checks’ Mr Buhari will undergo in London or whether or not it will affect the discharge of his duties.
The president’s spokespersons, Garba Shehu and Femi Adesina, did not answer or return calls seeking clarifications on the matter.
The ‘Good Old Days’
In the early period of the Buhari administration, the president used to notify the National Assembly of such medical trips and temporarily hand over power to his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo.
For example, Mr Buhari in June 2016 wrote to the National Assembly, notifying them of a 10-day medical trip to the UK, and temporarily transferring power to Mr Osinbajo. That was the second time such would be done in about a year after Mr Buhari assumed office.
How Things Changed
The last time Mr Buhari handed over to his deputy while embarking on personal (medical) trips was in 2018.
Although the president has embarked on many such trips since then, he has avoided formally notifying lawmakers and transferring power to Mr Osinbajo.
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Presidential aides have in the past dismissed public concerns on the matter; saying the president can work from anywhere in the world.
However, sources in the presidency told PREMIUM TIMES that the major reason Mr Buhari has refused to do so since 2018 is because of a particular action Mr Osinbajo took while he was acting president in August 2018.
Daura’s Sack
On August 7, 2018, PREMIUM TIMES reported how Mr Osinbajo, who was the then-acting president, terminated the appointment of the former Director-General, State Security Service, Lawal Daura.
Mr Daura, a close ally to the president, was sacked for ordering SSS officials to illegally invade the National Assembly without notifying or seeking permission from the acting president.
Many Nigerians hailed Mr Osinbajo for the action.
Although Mr Osinbajo’s office said then that the action was taken after the acting president consulted with Mr Buhari, close aides to the president told this newspaper that was not the case.
The president is very angry and has vowed never to temporarily cede power to Osinbajo again, one aide said then.
Since the 2018 incident, Mr Buhari has continued to execute presidential functions, including when abroad for medical treatment. PREMIUM TIMES reported how Mr Buhari, in 2019, signed a bill into law while in the UK for medical treatment.
The president’s latest medical sojourn will take a ‘maximum of two weeks,’ his office said on Tuesday.
Courtesy Premium Times