Khadijat Saidu, Birnin Kebbi
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Yakubu C. Maikyau has advocated for the amendment of the Nigeria’s Constitution to pave way for Independent candidacy and review of age for all the elective positions in the country.
Maikyau, who stated this during the second day of the House of Representative committee on Constitution review of the North-West centre, held in Birnin Kebbi, insisted that, such amendment could pave way for talented youths, women and persons living with disability to contest for any political positions.
Buttressing his argument, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria said, “we all know how expensive it is to run for an elective office under the constitution, except on the platform of a political party; candidates for elective offices must be sponsored by political parties. See section 221 of the constitution.
“Clearly, there is no room for independent candidate, under the present constitution. It follows that, a youth, woman or person living with disability, who cannot scale the hurdles to secure a ticket on a political party, can never express his or her political aspiration.
“A person should be at liberty, if dissatisfied about the conduct of any political party, leave to contest election as an independent candidate”.
Makaula argued for the amendment of section 223(1) of the constitution to ensure that not less than half of those tone elected, appointed into the Executive Committee or other Governing bodies of political parties, must comprise the youths, women and persons living with disabilities.
“By this, policies of political parties will always be structured to cater for these critical and important members of our society, in whose hands the future of the nation Nigeria largely depends,” he said.
He also insisted and advocated that the all-inclusive Constitution concept of Federal Character must be expanded to accommodate this level of participation of youths, women and persons living with disabilities. “I must however add that in all cases, regard must be had to merits a standard” he said.
