The former vice president, Mr. Atiku Abubakar has faulted the House of Representatives for rejecting the bill prescribing six-year single term for the president, governors.
It would be recalled that the lawmakers had, at its plenary yesterday killed a bill proposing a single term of six years for the president and governors, as well as members of the national assembly and state houses of assembly.
Mr. John Dyegh who sponsored the piece of legislation hand contended that in Nigeria in most cases, the common sense of humanity when lives matter is lost during re-elections.
He noted that lives are lost as a result of desperate struggle to remain in power for a second tenure.
“Limiting terms of office of a president or governor to a single, elongated tenure therefore offers a promising, long time solution to the avoidable loss of limbs, lives and sources of living attributable to conflicts arising out of re-election processes.
“You will agree with me that the present four years plus four years tenures of eight years is not helping matters, it is taking us backwards. Practically speaking, the occupier of the seat spends only two years in the first and the remaining two years fighting re-election which in Nigeria is many times more expensive than the first election and mostly dependent on lean resources of the State allegedly.
“In the second tenure he spends two and half years working on the remaining one and half years preparing his exit/soft landing and installation of a successor. So the total times spent for actual work for the state is not more than four and half years of the eight years,” said Dyegh.
Almost all the members who contributed to the discussion were not swayed by his arguments as they shot down the bill at its second reading.
Reacting to the rejection of the bill, the former vice president, Mr. Atiku Abubakar said the lawmakers’ action was a mistake because the lawmakers paid little attention to its merits adding that eight-year tenure of four years each sacrifices merit because the incumbents are automatically entitled to reelection regardless of their performance records.
Atiku, in a statement entitled ‘The House of Representatives rejection of six-year single tenure for president, governors is a missed opportunity’ said the lawmakers had missed the chance to positively affect a change in “our democratic order.”
“In view of the challenges facing our current democratic order, especially the culture of rigging that subverts the will of the people, six-year single term would have ended such untoward practices in our electoral process.
“The desperation for second term by the incumbents is the main reason why they go for broke and set the rule book on fire, thereby making free and fair elections impossible by legitimizing rigging at the expense of their challengers that have no access to public funds.
“A situation where the incumbents deploy more public resources to their second term projects than using the funds for people’s welfare encourages massive rigging that undermines electoral integrity.
“Six-year single term would remove such desperation and enable the incumbents concentrate on the job for which they were elected in the first place.
“I don’t agree with the logic that eight years would give elected leaders better opportunity to fulfill their campaign promises. An inherently incompetent incumbent will perform below average even if you give him/her 20 years in office or give him or her $20 billion.
“Second term obsession rewards incompetence by allowing failed incumbents to be reelected regardless of their performance record. It also denies political parties the opportunity to replace failed incumbents with better candidates within the parties in the name of right of first refusal,” he said.
He said he was disappointed by the fact that the lawmakers threw away the baby with the bath water at the expense of the larger interest of the country.
He said “eight-year term of office rewards incompetence because even incumbents that have failed would use their access to public funds to return to power by fair or foul means.
According to him, it is not how long a man spends in office, but how well he is adequately prepared for the job.
However, he was of the view that the current holders of the offices under the proposed constitutional review should not be entitled to a six-year term at the expiration of their second term.
