Reactions As National Assembly Votes On 44 Constitution Amendment Bills Tomorrow

After a year-long exercise, the National Assembly, particularly the House of Representatives, will tomorrow, December 23, 2025, vote on 44 Constitution Alteration Bills.

This comes as stakeholders, including political scientists and civil society organisations, told LEADERSHIP their expectations of the lawmakers ahead of the constitutional exercise.

A report of the House of Representatives Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution (Altered), chaired by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, showed that out of a total of 260 constitution review bills which passed second reading, 44 had been prioritised as the first batch of amendments to conclude in 2025.

The 44 prioritised bills are segmented into key thematic areas, including local government autonomy, inclusive governance, electoral reform, judicial independence and efficiency, devolution of powers, fiscal reforms, and security/state policing.

Some of the proposed alterations are: a bill to establish local government councils as a tier of government; the office of the state auditors-general for local governments and the federal capital territory area councils, to strengthen fiscal oversight, promote accountability, and enhance good governance at the grassroots level and grant citizenship rights to foreign men married to Nigerian women.

Others include bills to create reserved (additional) seats for women in the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly, to provide the criteria for appointing members of the State Independent Electoral Commission, to grant the commission additional powers, to establish independent candidacy, and to empower the Electoral Offences Commission to investigate and prosecute electoral offences.

Also, there are bills to establish the office of the Attorney-general of the Federation and of the state, separate from the office of the Minister of Justice, or the Commissioner for Justice; separate the office of the Governor from that of the Deputy Governor on issues of qualification or disqualification; remove transitional law-making powers from the executive arm of government and ensure expedited hearing and determination of petitions challenging the election of any person to an office created under the constitution.

Long Walk To Constitution Review

Since its inauguration in February 2024, the Constitution Review Committee of the House has conducted retreats and sectoral engagements with the judiciary, held high-level dialogues on security and pursued international cooperation to advance gender equality.

It convened a dedicated Local Government Summit to address the imperative of grassroots autonomy, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on local government elections.

The Committee held 12 zonal public hearings across all six geopolitical zones, where it received submissions from thousands of Nigerian citizens, traditional rulers, state executives, political parties, civil society organisations, women’s groups, youth leaders, professional bodies, and representatives of the security sector.

The panel also hosted a national Constitution Review hearing in Abuja to augment the zonal hearings.

It also undertook targeted consultations with key stakeholders, including the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures, recognising that effective federalism depends on intergovernmental cooperation rather than rivalry, as well as leaders of all registered political parties, underscoring that constitutional amendments should reflect a collective consensus above partisan interests.

A joint retreat of the House and Senate Committees on Constitution Review was held in October and November 2025, yielding a critical consensus on priority areas for reform.

According to the chairman of the House Committee, Kalu, the engagements represented a genuine endeavour to ensure that “every voice is heard, every concern examined, and every proposal subjected to thorough scrutiny.”

Clamour For Women’s Reserved Seats Bills

Ahead of the voting on Tuesday, there has been intense clamour for for seat reservation for women in the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly.

The newly elected deputy national chairman of the Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC), Zainab Ibrahim, called on members of the National Assembly to support the passage of a bill seeking to create reserved seats for women in the National and State Houses of Assembly.

Ibrahim, the deputy national women’s leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), insisted that the special women’s seats represent equity, justice, inclusion, and national development.

Also, at a recent forum in Abuja, the convener of the Reserve Seats for Women Bill Campaign Coalition, Osasu Igbinedion-Ogwuche, lamented Nigeria’s poor statistics on women’s political representation, which she said was embarrassing for a country regarded as Africa’s giant.

Our Expectations – Political Scientists

The President of the Nigerian Political Scientists Association (NPSA), Prof. Hassan Saliu, has highlighted the association’s expectations ahead of the National Assembly’s passage of the constitutional amendment bills.

Speaking with LEADERSHIP in Ilorin, Kwara State, Saliu said: “Ordinarily, three primary stages are involved in reviewing the Electoral Act. The first stage is the introduction of a bill by members, the executive, or the general public, possibly through a coalition of CSOs. The second stage is the public hearing, while the last stage is the president’s assent. This process should flow naturally, but it may not be the case this time around, depending on the president and his handlers’ mood.

“Recall that an electoral bill was sent to President Buhari before the 2019 elections, but he denied giving his assent, citing the closeness of the polls. However, the truth is that the bill contained sections that would affect his chances in the elections. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect the president, who is a candidate in the polls, to examine the bill critically.

“The president has three options: sign it into law, withhold assent, or raise issues with the bill. Regarding the provisions, the electronic transfer of results is a positive step, as it will resolve controversies surrounding it. However, not criminalising vote buying is disappointing. One can’t blame the National Assembly entirely, as they are an interested party in the issue,” he said.

On his part, the national secretary of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), High Chief Peter Ameh, has warned that proposed constitutional amendments by the National Assembly will fail to restore public trust in Nigeria’s electoral system unless they address what he described as the root causes of electoral fraud.

He said there are limited expectations for transformative change from the anticipated passage of the constitutional amendment bills, despite acknowledging the efforts invested in the ongoing review process.

“As the National Assembly prepares to vote on and potentially pass various constitutional amendment bills this week, we acknowledge the efforts invested in addressing several structural issues in our governance framework.

“However, we hold no particular expectations for transformative change from these amendments.”

He said that no electoral reform would be meaningful unless it mandates the compulsory electronic transmission of election results from polling units directly to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Result Viewing (IREV) portal in real-time.

Also speaking, Suleiman Gimba, a Senior Programme Officer at the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), called for national interest, inclusiveness, and strict adherence to democratic principles in the ongoing constitutional amendment process.

Gimba, speaking from a civil society and governance perspective, said the passage of any constitutional amendment must go beyond formal approval by the National Assembly and reflect broad consultation, transparency, and responsiveness to Nigeria’s long-standing governance challenges.

“Beyond the formal passage by the National Assembly, we expect that the process will reflect broad consultation, transparency and responsiveness to long-standing governance challenges, rather than narrow political compromises,” he said.