The House of Representatives has rejected the constitutional amendment that seeks to confer life pension on National Assembly’s presiding officers.
These include the Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Deputy Speaker.
The bill however failed to get the required 240 votes as provided in the 1999 constitution as amended at the constitutional review proceedings on Tuesday.
It got 193 ‘No’ votes, while 162 lawmakers voted in support of the bill.
“That the House does receive the report of the Special Ad-hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution on a Bill for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Provide Pension for Presiding Officers of the National Assembly; and for Related Matters,” the rejected bill had read.
Already Section 84(5) of the Nigerian constitution guarantees life pension for all former Presidents and Vice-Presidents, a cost which gulps an average of N7.8billion yearly.
