Politics
Age qualification to rule Nigeria may drop to age 30yrs –Dogara
The House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, on Wednesday hinted at the possibility of 30-years old being the qualification to become the president of Nigeria.
He said the move was contained in a new bill which targets to lower the age qualification for persons vying for political offices in Nigeria.
The bill generally tagged the “Not Too Young To Run Bill”, according to the Speaker had already passed second reading and has been referred to the Special Ad Hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution.
Dogara made this known in Abuja while speaking at the plenary of the Nigerian Youth Parliament, explaining that the objective of the bill was to ensure adequate representation to the youth who are 60 per cent of the country’s population.
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According to Dogara, the bill would amend Sections 65, 106, 131 and 177 of the 1999 Constitution by simply lowering the age qualification bar.
If the bill makes it, the age qualification for the presidency, the Speaker said will drop from 40 to 30 years; Governor, 35 to 30 years; Senate, 35 to 30 years; House of Representatives and state House of Assembly, 30 to 25 years.
However, the amendment can only become law if it secures the concurrence of the Senate as well as garner the approved of a two-thirds majority (24) of the 36 state Houses of Assembly in line with the provision of Section 9 of the constitution.
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JOHNSON PETER
May 18, 2017 at 7:59 am
If they do that, then it will be good for we the youths, at least we can now vie for presidency and now we can now say we the youths are the leaders of tomorrow.
yanju omotodun
May 18, 2017 at 12:47 pm
Yes yes yes!
I will contest presidential election comes 2023, no doubt about that.
Anita Kingsley
May 18, 2017 at 9:50 am
If we are to look at the present condition of Nigerian youths, they are not better than the old fools we have in power, the level of corruption among the youths is even higher than the elderly men in government. I’ve not seen how the age reduction will help the country
Animashaun Ayodeji
May 18, 2017 at 9:53 am
The old fools like you said are the reason Nigerian youths are also very corrupt today, but if the youths are well represented and they have more hands in government than the elderly men, you will see everything will change for the better. Youths are not corrupt, they are only under the influence of the old men, once the elderly men are not there anymore, corruption will drastically reduce
Joy Madu
May 19, 2017 at 4:57 am
It will help because a young government can be able to control any situation that comes his way why the old government will cry for tiredness and get sick because of the over labour in the presidential office and other individual problem
Agbor Chris
May 18, 2017 at 9:55 am
This will be a very good thing. The Nigerian youths need to takeover government and run the affairs of the country. The people we have there now knows nothing but selfishness. I hope the senate will be able to achieve this against 2019