Nigerian senate backs move to slash president’s powers

Nigeria’s upper house of parliament on Wednesday backed a

series of constitutional amendments that could reduce the powers of the

presidency and boost the legislature.

The head of

the country’s senate Bukola Saraki – who is pushing the changes – said

the amendments would help boost the West African country’s development,

though Reuters reports a senior official in President Muhammadu Buhari’s

government to say this would amount to “a very unhealthy” power grab.

The presidency and the senate have had a long-running supremacy battle, going as far back as two years ago.

“What

we have done today definitely is to lay the foundation for a

far-reaching reform of our political, economic and social development,”

Saraki said after the Senate vote.

The amendments

must still be approved by the lower house and two thirds of Nigeria’s 36

regional state parliaments and then be signed off by the president.

The

measures include providing certain legal immunity to members of the

legislature, reducing the president’s ability to withhold assent for a

bill passed by parliament, and removing law-making powers from the

executive.

The lower chamber, the House of Representatives, is due to vote on the proposed amendments on Thursday.

President

Buhari has been away from his country for more than two months now

after he travelled to London for medical treatment for an undisclosed

disease. This is his second medical trip abroad this year, having also

spent about two months away in the first.

Saraki, 54, hails from Buhari’s All Progressives

Congress, but he assumed the senate presidency in 2015 without the

party’s support but with the backing of the opposition.

Saraki

has often been a thorn in the side of the presidency, with parliament

repeatedly blocking presidential appointments to key positions.