|
Official:Jonathan in amazing move, guns for 6-year single term
Newsdiaryonline Tue July 26,2011
President Goodluck Jonathan
has made an amazing
move seeking to
limit the tenure of Nigeria’s President and governors to a
single term of four years. Though the idea is not new, it is
strange that he is giving it a priority at this time.
In a statement today the presidency said the idea is meant to
curb some of the weaknesses in
the nation’s electoral and transition process .It also dismissed
claims that Jonathan may be seeking tenure elongation.
But in the days ahead the president may have to do more to
convince Doubting
Thomases that he is not seeking to stay beyond 2015.In fact, the
unofficial words doing the round even before Jonathan
was sworn in recently
claimed that he may not
quit 2015.
Dr Reuben Abati,the
presidential spokesman however said
today that “The
President believes that this single move, when actualized, will
change the face of our politics and accelerate the overall
development of our nation. If the proposed amendment is accepted
by the National Assembly, the President assures that he will not
in any way be a beneficiary.”
Despite the presidential clarification, some Nigerians who spoke
to
Newsdiaryonline
said they believe Jonathan will not quit in 2015 , and that
today’s statement may
just be the beginning of intrigues that may unfold
in due course.
Full text of the presidential statement
reads:
“PRESIDENT JONATHAN AND TENURE OF OFFICE
President Goodluck Ebele 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 is not helping
the focus of Governance and institutionalization of democracy at
this stage of our development. A longer term for lawmakers would
also help to stabilise the polity.
President Jonathan is concerned about the acrimony which the
issue of re-election, every four years, generates both at the
Federal and State levels. The nation is still smarting
from the unrest, the desperation for power and the overheating
of the polity that has 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 elections 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.
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.
The President also states that the greater good of Nigeria is
greater than the ambition of any one individual. The envisaged
Bill is part of the Jonathan administration’s transformation
agenda aimed at sanitizing the nation’s politics. The
President believes that this single move, when actualized, will
change the face of our politics and accelerate the overall
development of our nation. If the proposed amendment is accepted
by the National Assembly, the President assures that he will not
in any way be a beneficiary.”
.
|
