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Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives, yesterday, passed a bill for the establishment of a Federal Polytechnic in Daura, Kastina.
Daura is President Muhammadu Buhari’s hometown of.
The House also passed for Third Reading, bills for the establishment of eight other tertiary institutions across the country.
The new institutions, which received the nod of the Green Chamber, include the Federal Capital University of Science and Technology, Abaji; Federal University of Agriculture, Jalingo; Federal Polytechnic, Kaltungo, Gombe State and the Federal Polytechnic, Mpu, Enugu State, where Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu comes from.
Others are Federal College of Education, Sabon Birni, Sokoto; Federal College Education (Special) Birnin, Jigawa State; College of Education (Technical), Onna, Akwa-Ibom and Federal Polytechnic, Malumfashi, Kastina State.
According to the chairman, Committee on Tertiary Education, Aminu Suleman, there are about 100 bills seeking establishment of tertiary institutions in different parts of the country.
At the Committee of the Whole, yesterday, also endorsed dual citizenship for married women in the country.
The lawmakers adopted the report on a Bill for an Act to amend the Federal Character Commission (Establishment) Act, 2010.
The amendment gives married women in the country an optiion of choosing whether to claim indigeneship from their areas of origin or their marital homes.
Meanwhile, the House also approved the Electoral Act, 2010, Amendment Bill, after rescinding some clauses, in line with the president’s request.
It is expected that the bill would read for the third time and passed by the House before the end of the week.
At its plenary last Thursday, the House adopted a motion to re-commit the bill to the Committee of the Whole for consideration, to enable the House rescind some clauses in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and pass it again.
Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Business, Edward Pwajok, proposed the motion where he stated that all the issues raised by the president, in his rejection letter, have been addressed.
The president had declined assent to the bill on three different occasions. In his December 6, 2018 letter to the House, Buhari, apart from stating that the signing bill would disrupt preparations for the 2019 general election, requested the National Assembly to redraft some clauses in the bill.
“Section 5 of the Bill, amending section 18 of the Principal Act should indicate the subsection to which the substitution of the figure “30” for the figure “60” is to be affected.
“Section 11 of the Bill, amending Section 36 should indicate the subsection in which the proviso is to be introduced.
“Section 24 of the Bill which amends Section 85 (1) should be redrafted in full as the introduction of the “electing” to the sentence may be interpreted to mean that political parties may give 21 days notice of the intention to merge, as opposed to the 90 days provided in Section 84 (2) of the Electoral Act which provides the provision for merge of political parties.”
