Reps seek additional senatorial districts, constituencies

Posted by admin House, Legislature Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

House of Representatives on Tuesday endorsed a resolution seeking to create additional senatorial districts and federal constituencies in the country.

There are 109 senatorial districts and 360 federal constituencies across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory at the moment.

The creation of additional senatorial districts and federal constituencies will translate to more senators and members going to the National Assembly.

The House gave its Committee on Electoral Matters four weeks to look into the matter and submit a report within weeks.

The committee was directed to “liaise with the Independent National Electoral Commission to review Federal Constituencies and Senatorial Districts across the country in accordance with the 1999 Constitution and report back to the House within four weeks.”

The resolution followed a motion by Mr. Mohammed Ango-Abdullahi.

Ango-Abdullahi had drawn the attention of the House to the fact that many of the existing constituencies and districts have between four and 14 local governments.

He claimed that the “population density” in the current arrangement had placed “a burden” on National Assembly members.

He argued that some constituencies have as many as 42 wards, a size the lawmaker said was unbearable for most legislators to manage.

According to him, expanding the senatorial districts and constituencies will give the people more social, economic and political representation.

Citing Section 73 (1&2) of the constitution, Ango-Abdullahi observed that INEC was mandated to review the districts and constituencies at “intervals of not less than 10 years.”

He pointed out 73(2) specifically empowers INEC to carry out the review in line with the growing population of the country.

He added, “The population of the country is increasing by the day at an annual growth rate of 3.18 per cent from 2006 census and the 2006 census stands at 140,003,542.”

Ango-Abdullahi called on the National Population Commission to begin preparation for the 2016 census to reflect the exact population of the constituencies and districts.

“This will also check the burden of the National Assembly members who have two, three or four local governments as a federal constituency without considering to its population density or seven, eight, nine or 10 local governments as a senatorial district for a senator without consideration to its population density in their respective constituencies”, he added.

-Punchwp_posts