The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has called for an extension of the term of political officeholders to six years. Ekweremadu who doubles as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Review believes that the adoption of a single tenure of 6 years will reduce the tension in the polity.
When the idea first came up after Jonathan’s election, many sides kicked against it and it died a natural death on the drawing board, now it seems the protagonists are pushing for it again.
Speaking to journalists at a parley in Lagos, the Deputy Senate President said single term remained a viable idea.
His words: When the matter came up at the level of our committee we were mindful of the political atmosphere, we also tried to draw inspiration from what happened in other jurisdictions, especially in Latin America in the seventies where they had circumstances in which the issue of transition from one president to another was a major issue and was causing crises within their region and they decided to amend their constitution at the time to create single term in each of those countries, and it was for a transition period.
This helped to stabilise their democracy and now, some of them are amending their constitutions to go back to two terms of maybe four or five years. So, we felt that it was something we could recommend to our country.
If you look at what is going on in Nigeria, in both the new PDP and APC are based on the issue of succession. We believe strongly that that matter is something that could be revisited.
But I think the mistake we made in our recommendation was when we said incumbents would not benefit from it, and I think there was then some kind of coalition of forces to defeat it.
Yes, I believe that if the players in the polity, that is, the stakeholders are able to come together, I believe strongly that it is one way to deal with the situation.
It could be a win-win situation for everybody and I believe that the one way it could work is…now people have been elected for four years, now let everybody complete the four year tenure for which they have been elected and we can through the doctrine of necessity do some kind of transition of two years in which case, those who are now present occupants like the president and the governors who are finishing their term, could now do another two years that will end in 2017.
“You see, some of those who are fighting the president, I hear that their complaint is that if the president gets a second term when they are gone that they may start chasing them. Now if we agree that that could be a way to solve the problem, after two years both the president and those other governors will now exit and the fear will not be there and I believe it will bring down the temperature of politics.
“Of course we don’t have much problem with the legislative positions, we can go ahead and hold the legislative elections in 2015. The advantage will be that if we do the legislative elections in 2015, and then we do executive elections in 2017, then we will have two year gap for INEC to have a breathing space to prepare well. You can see what is happening in Anambra now. INEC needs sufficient time to recover from one election to another.
I think it is something that we need to reflect on and see if it is something that can help to resolve some of the challenges that are having now. And I do hope that if we are able to do that and we all agree to it, that it is going to solve even some of the security challenges because I do believe that some of the security problems we are having, some of them are from the tension arising from politically charged atmosphere.
So, somehow, everybody will benefit from it, both the president, the governors and all that and all we need to do is to exercise some patience and give them two more years and they will all exit and we will start on a clean slate and go forward.
“If you say it is five years, six years or seven years, we will all agree so that the cost of all these re-elections and all that and all the problems that come with it would have been resolved and people will now know that if I am a president or a governor, I have a certain number of years and when I finish, I am not going to hunt the president or stop him from running again.
“Right now what is happening is that if the governor wants a re-election, he will do all kinds of things to stop the opposition and on the other hand someone else will accuse the governor of all kinds of stupid things because he wants to have himself elected, so it causes all kinds of problems.
“Even the cost of the election itself, I don’t think that Nigeria can continue to sustain that. I know how much money we have spent on INEC and besides I know that politicians themselves spend a lot of money which most of them don’t ever declare. So, it is a huge cost to the country, but if we say let there be single term especially for the executive positions, some of these costs will have to be reduced.
“So, I am sure that it is something that we have to reflect on, it has the potential of dealing with the politically charged atmosphere, it has a way of helping to reduce the cost of election in this country and I believe that it will even help in driving a solution to the security challenges.
‘Let Jonathan’s term expire in 2017′ –
Ekweremadu’
The DSP proposition on 6
years single tenure for executive office holders lack proper articulation.
Inasmuch as the proposition has its own straight forward advantages and disadvantages,
one would have thought that the DSP would proffer a more workable solutions.
This on it own has shown the kind of representation we are having at the
Federal level which they have monopolized at the detriments of other Nigerians.
In nutshell, the many
troubles of this country lie on too much power vested at the Federal Government
with attractive benefits to the executive offices across the Federal and State
levels. The FGN should divulge itself of its too many powers and responsibilities
by allowing the states to bear more the burden of governance.
A tier of governance should
be scraped – from three to two tier structures.
There should be creation
of more states across the country whether the states so created could sustain
its self or not.
The passed imbalances in
the creation of states and local governments by the military administrators
should be corrected once and for all.
The too many agitations
for power shifts lies on the fact that our political leaders are not
accountable to the people they governed and since it is impossible for
executive office holders to force themselves into accountability, it will only
be proper that power are allowed to rotate as quickly as possible. We should
avoid recycling of old politicians for so many wants to have the title of
political office holder even if it is for three months.
I will also use this
opportunity to appeal to DSP to stop further marginalization of some
constituencies within his zone – Udi / Ezeagu. My Town Affa has nothing to show
from the representation of DSP and his House of Representative counterpart
since they assumed office.
There goes another attempt at term extension. Maybe Jonathan should be awarded a Noble Peace Price as well. You idiot, all your roads in the SouthEast are a sorry thing and you’re talking nonsense.
There goes another attempt at term extension. Maybe Jonathan should be awarded a Noble Peace Price as well. You idiot, all your roads in the SouthEast are a sorry thing and you’re talking nonsense.