BILL TO MANDATE VOTING FOR ALL NIGERIANS SCALES SECOND READING IN REPS

Read Time:3 Minute, 4 Second

By Oduola F.A.

A bill seeking to amend the Electoral Act, 2002 to make voting compulsory for all eligible Nigerians has passed second reading in the House of Representatives.

The proposed legislation is sponsored by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas and lawmaker Daniel Asama Ago.

Leading the debate during plenary on Thursday, Ago said the bill aimed to encourage citizens’ participation in the electoral process, noting that voter apathy during elections would be addressed if the bill scales legislative scrutiny.

Ago, who represents Bassa/Jos North under the Labour Party, believes mandatory voting can reduce the influence of vote buying.

The Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, in his contribution believes this is a good step in the right direction.

He also cited examples of other countries such as Australia where the practice is upheld.

Some lawmakers argued that citizens have lost confidence in the voting system, and also question the authenticity of the voters register.

Similarly, a bill for an Act to amend the Labour Act, to increase the Maternity Leave period of working women to six months has been stepped down in the House of Representatives.

Hon Chike Okafor (Okigwe South/Imo/APC) who sponsored the bill was compelled to step it down after lawmakers including women, debated against it.

The lawmakers argued that increasing the maternity leave period from three to six months would put women in a disadvantaged position as employers would be wary of employing them.

The lower chamber also called for the establishment of at least one computer-based testing (CBT) in each of the 774 local government areas of the country for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The lawmakers made the resolution during plenary on Thursday, following the admission by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) that there were glitches in this year’s examination.

According to the lawmakers, the move would aid in forestalling future recurrence.

The House also called for calm in the wake of JAMB’s admission to errors in the 2025 UTME.

Last month, the Senate mulled a similar resolution, saying there will be budgetary provisions in 2026 fiscal year for the establishment of CBT centres across the 774 local government areas of the country.

According to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, Mohammed Dandutse, who spoke when he monitored the 2025 UTME, the absence of CBT centres in some parts of the country calls for concern.

He said, “In making it easy for candidates seeking admissions into universities or other tertiary institutions through UTME, the ICT centres must be made available in all the 774 local government councils across the country.

“I am from Katsina South senatorial district, where only two out of the 11 local government councils have ICT centres for UTME.

“Since the examination is computer-based, centres for it need to be made available across the 774 local government councils in the country. In doing this, this committee of the senate, in collaboration with our colleagues in the house of representatives, shall facilitate budgetary provisions for it in the 2026 fiscal year.”

On Wednesday, the JAMB registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, in a rare admission while fighting back tears, said some errors affected candidates’ performance in the 2025 UTME.

At a press briefing in Abuja, Oloyede said about 379,997 candidates who sat for the examination would retake it owing to the errors.

The move came in the wake of widespread outrage over what some described as technical glitches, unusually low scores, and alleged irregularities in the questions and the answers in this year’s examination.

When JAMB reviewed the 2025 UTME, it found out that a technical glitch affected 157 out of the 887 centres.