The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has said that the issue of a single term for president and governors must be revisited after the 2019 general elections.
Ekweremadu said this had become necessary to avoid the tension created in the polity any time elections were approaching.
The deputy Senate president said on his Facebook wall yesterday that he believed a single tenure of either five or six years would go a long way in addressing the tension in the country.
”As is always the case, Nigeria’s political atmosphere is getting toxic ahead of the 2019 general elections and governance is taking a backseat. Unfortunately, this atmosphere, with the accompanying brazen political excesses, are unlikely to abate until well after the 2019 general elections.
“Unable to resist the temptations that come with enormous power of incumbency, those who call the shots today, throw everything within their reach into the mix in desperate efforts to retain power at all cost and by all means.
“The feverish political climate in the country today, once again, justifies the call by some of us for a single term of five or six years for the president and governors.
“Although a renewable four-year term is popular, societies are dynamic and it is up to us to make necessary constitutional adjustments to safeguard our democracy and make periods leading up to our elections less toxic,” he said.
Ekweremadu added that: “In Nigeria’s case, we proposed a single term for the president and governors with several transitional options during the constitution amendment exercise in the 7th National Assembly. Unfortunately, it was misunderstood by various political and sectional interests for various reasons and the proposal did not succeed.
“However, I strongly believe a single term of five or six years for president and governors, even if for a stipulated period as was the case with several Latin American democracies, is something Nigerians should revisit after the 2019 general elections. This will substantially reduce the political tensions and executive excesses that come with self-succession,” he said.
