Section 3: Eligibility and certain restrictions on persons in Government

(1)
No citizen of Nigeria shall be nominated for consideration as a national hero unless the following conditions are satisfied that is to say-
(a) he shall have rendered continuous service of a public nature (whether or not in the public services in the Federation) for a period of not less than ten years;
(b) he shall be or have been a person of undoubted integrity;
(c) he shall have achieved distinction in his chosen occupation, profession, calling or in any field of human endeavour whatsoever; and
(d) if alive, he shall not be less than fifty years old and, if dead, he shall not have died before 1st January, 1914.
(2)
Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section, a person holding any executive, legislative or judicial office in the Government of the Federation or in any State or local government shall not be nominated for consideration as a national hero while still holding any such office and shall continue to be so ineligible for nomination, until his death or until after the expiration of a period of five years upon his ceasing to hold such office, whichever is earlier:
Provided that where a person who ceased to hold office for such period or longer period is thereafter re-elected or, as the case may be, appointed to again hold any such office, the period of five years aforementioned shall be computed from the time he ceased finally to hold any such office.