I read with great enthusiasm the passage and subsequent presidential assent of the Not too young to run bill. It is indeed a welcome development, if only my village people will support my ambitions, I would have contemplated contesting in the next few years. However, i was flabberwhelmed and overgasted when i read a link shared by TheNigerianlawyer, attributing to JS Okutepa SAN a statement denoting that the bill is going nowhere, it will suffer CONSTITUTIONAL DEFEAT, passing the bill was a a total waste of time and that it is contrary to the provisions of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria as amended 1999, my heartbeats became high and heavy at this stage, I began raining silent curses on the national assembly for deceiving us, the SAN has spoken and his words carries legal weights, after all, one does not show the throat the way to the stomach!!. Later on after settling down, still thinking about what the senior advocate said, for those of you who may not be familiar with who is a Senior advocate, a Senior advocate is the highest position a practicing lawyer can bag in Nigeria, their words are junior brothers to the law, if not twin brothers, I thought carefully and the question which comes to mind is “can the constitution be amended by an act of the national assembly, can an act of the national assembly correct what is clearly written in the constitution? The alpha and the omega??”. Before I proceed, it is important I tell you what is the clash, how did this new law violated and departed from the Almighty constitution, the Almighty constitution in section 65 provides for 35 and 30 years for one to be eligible to contest for the Senate and house of representatives respectively, while section 131 of the almighty constitution provides for 40 years for the eligibility of contesting for the presidency, and section 106 provides for 30 years for the houses of assembly of states, and section 177 provides for 35 years for eligibility of contesting for the governor of your state, and the newly enacted Not too young to run Act reduced all these years with a reduction of 5 years from each. The Almighty constitution has spoken!! As far as Nigerian law is concerned, it is the beginning and it is the end!! That was the argument of JS Okutepa Senior advocate of Nigeria. However, a simple reading of section 9 of this same Almighty constitution provides the answer itself, particularly sub section 2 of this section, it provides that the National assembly can make Acts to alter the provisions of the almighty constitution, it stipulates that those conditions includes that the Act must have been passed by not less than two thirds majority of that house, and also approved by a resolution of the houses of assembly of not less than two thirds of all the states. All these conditions were satisfied, it is on record that only Lagos, kano and Zamfara were the states who failed to approve, and a walk of shame was even conducted against these states. With this, it is very clear that this Act is not in anyway contrary to the constitution, rather it amends the constitution, the Act is referred to as the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria (Fourth alteration) Bill No. 27 2017. The Act is an amendment to the almighty constitution as provided by section 9, JS Okutepa SAN was not right in saying it would suffer constitutional defeat, how would it suffer constitutional defeat when its aim is to improve, beautify and amend the constitution as provided under section 9(2) to the advantage of the people, whom sovereignty belongs to as provided under section 14 (2) of this same Almighty constitution. With this, I hereby seek and plead for the solidarity of my village people, the powers of your village people as you know, can not be over emphasized, it is indeed a welcome development, and I hereby categorically assert that it is very much constitutional, or better still an improvement/amendment on the provisions of the Almighty constitution. Munir Ishaq (Morality) writes from Faculty of law. Bayero University Kano.,+2348147841027]]>
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