Single Term Saga

Ever since the rumor of the single tenure started circulating, there have been several comments from various quarters. These became far more critical after the President officially announced his move for the single term bill. Since then some notable Nigerians and politicians have declared that the move would not solve Nigeria’s problems, others saying that it is self-serving and unpatriotic while some have tagged it to be a misfit worse than the 3rd term bid. Prominent among the opposition to the bill are The National Chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria and The Vice-President of Nigeria Labour Congress.

Despite the President’s insistence that the he would not be a beneficiary to the single term bill, criticisms like this have continued to pour in. Responding to this, in a manner quite similar to that of the CBN Governor on the Islamic bank controversy; the President said that the bill was not his idea but rather had been conceived by all the major parties in Nigeria except the ACN. At the 56th National Executive Committee meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party held at Abuja, the President said that “The memo submitted by all the parties contained that (single term proposal)”

The President promised to engage in further consultations before presenting a bill on the issue to the National Assembly, saying he had not decided on the duration of the single term.

The president said, “Nobody should hold meetings about the elongation of tenure. It has nothing to do with elongation of tenure. The tenure of Goodluck Jonathan and Namadi Sambo will end on 29th May, 2015. That is the constitution. So, it has nothing to do with that.”