President Goodluck Jonathan, on Tuesday, confirmed a single term proposal for the offices of president of the Federal Republic and state governors, just as he explained why he is sending a bill to the National Assembly to that effect.
President Jonathan, who explained that his position was not for selfish reason but patriotic zeal to make governance more meaningful to the citizenry, stated that the greater good of Nigeria was greater than the ambition of any individual.
“The proposed amendment bill is necessary to consolidate our democracy and allow elected executives to concentrate on governance and service delivery for their full terms, instead of running governments with re-election as their primary focus,” he said.
A presidency statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, in Abuja on Tuesday, while explaining the reasons behind the proposed amendment, was, however, silent on the number of years the envisaged tenure for the president and governors will be.
According to the statement, President Jonathan was taking this step out of patriotic zeal, as he did not believe the present constitutionally guaranteed two terms for president and governors were helpful to the nation’s democracy.
The statement said: “President Goodluck Jonathan is to send a Constitution Amendment Bill to the National Assembly that will provide a single tenure for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the governors of the 36 states of the federation.
“In the envisaged bill, the tenure of members of the National and State Assemblies will also be a little more than four years, although lawmakers will still be eligible for re-election as their constituencies may determine.
“President Jonathan’s commitment to a single term for the president and governors is borne out of a patriotic zeal, after a painstaking study and belief that the constitutionally guaranteed two terms for presidents and governors are not helping the focus of governance and institutionalisation of democracy at this stage of our development.
“A longer term for lawmakers would also help to stabilise the polity,” it said.
Abati further said that President Jonathan was concerned about the acrimony which the issue of re-election, every four years, generates, both at the federal and state levels, adding; “the nation is still smarting from the unrest, the desperation for power and the overheating of the polity that have attended each general election, the fall-out of all this is the unending inter and intra-party squabbles which have affected the growth of party democracy in the country, and have further undermined the country’s developmental aspirations.
“In addition, the cost of conducting party primaries and the general election have become too high for the economy to accommodate every four years. The proposed amendment bill is necessary to consolidate our democracy and allow elected executives to concentrate on governance and service delivery for their full term, instead of running governments with re-election as their primary focus,” the statement declared.
Presidency explained that, “This clarification has become necessary in the light of certain reports in a section of the media that the proposed bill is meant to elongate President Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure.
“Nothing can be more untrue. The energy that has been devoted to speculations on the content of the likely bill is akin to an attempt to force the abortion of a non-existent pregnancy.
“The details of the bill will be clear in terms of its provisions, when it is forwarded to the National Assembly for consideration.
“The president makes it clear that his push for a single tenure for the office of the president and that of the governors is not borne out of any personal interest. The proposed amendment will not have anything to do with him as a person; what he owes Nigerians is good governance, and he is singularly committed to this.
“Besides, it is trite law that the envisaged amendment cannot have a retroactive effect. This means that whatever single term tenure that is enacted into law by the National Assembly will take effect from 2015,” it said.
The statement quoted the president as saying that “the greater good of Nigeria is greater than the ambition of any one individual,” adding that “the envisaged bill is part of the Jonathan-led admini-stration’s transformation agenda, aimed at sanitising the nation’s politics.”
It said “the president believes that this single move, when actualised, will change the face of our politics and accelerate the overall development of our nation.”
In ruling Jonathan out of the benefits of the tenure elongation, the presidency said “if the proposed amendment is accepted by the National Assembly, the president assures that he will not, in any way, be a beneficiary.”
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