Ban Ex-Governors From Contesting National Assembly Elections — NIDLS DG

The Director General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Prof Sulaiman Abubakar has called for the amendment of the constitution to bar former governors from seeking elections into the National Assembly to avoid turning the Senate into a ‘retirement home’.

He also called for an upward review of the educational qualification for National Assembly legislators to an undergraduate degree.

Abubakar made the call in a paper titled: “High turnover of lawmakers: impacts and way forward”, which he presented at the House of Representatives Press Corps Week on Monday in Abuja also blamed the high turnover in the National Assembly on governors who decide who to scale through primary elections.

“Another possible intervention to stem the high turnover is legislative actions by way of amendment to our constitution.

This could be by prescribing more years for the legislative tenure or stemming the incursion of retired governors and other executives into eroding the independence of the legislature.

“The legislature is too important to be the retirement home of governors and other executive bigwigs. All efforts must be put in place to change the trend,” he submitted.