Constitution amendment: Why we opted for six-yr single term –Ekweremadu

 

•Says Jonathan initiated the idea in 2011
From ADETUTU FOLASADE-KOYI, Abuja
Chairman of the Senate Constitution Review Committee (CRC), Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said yesterday that the decision to recommend a single term of six years for the office of president, his deputy, governors and their deputies was in order to end the perennial struggle for power by the political class.
The Senate CRC amended Sections 135 and 180 to allow for new single term tenure for executive offices. The committee also amended Section 137, barring incumbents from benefitting from the new tenure. Besides, Ekweremadu said the recommendation and excluding incumbents from benefitting from the proposal was based on the need for them to make sacrifices for the country, which would hopefully engender good governance.

The deputy Senate president equally noted that the idea of a single term of six years for elective office did not emanate from the Senate. He pointed at Aso Rock instead.
Ekweremadu told newsmen in Abuja yesterday that President Goodluck Jonathan was actually the first person to moot the idea for an amendment of the 1999 Constitution to allow for a single term.
The president’s proposal, which never came to the National Assembly in form of a bill, was that the constitution be amended so that elected presidents and governors could do a single term of between six to seven years to allow the incumbent concentrate on governance without distractions of seeking a second term in office. Said Ekweremadu: “Those who are currently serving should make the sacrifice on behalf of the system.
You would remember that our president was the earliest person who called for amendment where he proposed a single term of six to seven years and he was grossly misunderstood. “People said he wanted to get a third term and that he wanted to elongate his tenure and all kinds of things were said. We have no problem with that so long as it would help keep the issue of second term and its distractions away. But we didn’t want Nigerians to say we have colluded with the executive to give tenure elongation to the president and certain governors.
“They would easily charge us with that and that means that instead of eight years, it would now be 10 years. So, I think its better to make sacrifice and allow the system to run than giving someone an extended tenure of 10 years. “Nigerians would understand someone making sacrifice and spending a single tenure than extending it for 10 years.
That was what informed our decision. As I said earlier, it’s still subject to what our colleagues will say at plenary. If they decide that it should be for two terms of four years or six years single term, so be it. So long as we’d be able to have an environment where people won’t struggle for power and try to divert from issues of governance.”
Besides, the deputy Senate president explained that the committee deliberately refrained from setting a time frame for when the single term tenure would take off in the event that the National Assembly and the state Houses of Assembly passed it. Ekweremadu said the new six-year single term would take effect as soon as the Constitution (amendment) was passed. sourc: sunews