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Saturday, June 15, 2013

National Mirror: The GEJ condition for the 6-year single tenure

National Mirror
All the Facts | All the Sides
The GEJ condition for the 6-year single tenure
Jun 15th 2013, 23:05

An intriguing aspect of the recommendations of the constitution review committee is the one that pertains to the six-year single tenure for president and vice and governors and deputies; to be found in sections 135 and 180, respectively; which stipulates, inter alia, that once a person has served in that capacity, whether by direct election as president or governor or by inheritance as vice or deputy, such a person would automatically be disqualified to run for the same office in future elections. Following from this is the recommendation that persons currently holding those positions are disqualified from contesting for those offices when the single tenure dispensation kicks off eventually. Which is to say that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan—GEJ, his Vice, Mr. Namadi Sambo, and all the serving governors and their deputies are barred by the new constitution, when it comes into force, from running for those positions in the six-year single tenure regime.

The latter recommendation has provoked a reaction from the sitting President— GEJ—to the effect that the six year single tenure would commence in 2019, by which time the president and governors doing their first term now would have completed their first and second terms as allowed by the present constitution. The President's concern about commencement date appears fair to all concerned; but pundits have averred that it would shortchange first term governors that would emerge hereafter and president and his vice should there be a change of guards in Aso Rock, God forbid, come 2015.

The worry is not with the six-year single tenure for some of us. The worry is that there appears not to be a sufficient constitutional safeguard against abuses in the operation of the single tenure political culture. The concern of the President that serving officers in the capacities under consideration should run their terms as permitted by existing law is well taken. But should the six-year single tenure be foisted on Nigerians without adequate checks and balances to ensure that while we save cost and gain peace in the new dispensation, the Nigerian people are not inflicted with dead wood and spent forces whose favourite pastime would be the pillaging of the nation's treasury?

The nation's state actors do not painstakingly think out the problems before adopting strategies for their resolutions. A single tenure system is not to be adopted merely because of cost and rancour incidental to running the multiple tenure system provided by existing law. It must carry adequate safeguards to guarantee good governance and transparency in government. It must task political parties and their leaders to present their best possible candidates to compete for elective public offices. The dispensation must produce men and women, nay, state actors that are less terrible than tigers, who can be trusted to deploy public treasury for public good and public welfare.

A six-year single tenure that does not provide stringent guidelines to obstruct the emergence of a tyrannical, garrulous, profligate and corrupt magistrates of state cannot hope to overcome the pitfalls of the multiple tenure system that it seeks to replace. A single tenure system should be tied to achievable programmes and deliverances for public inspection and approbation, periodically, say, every two years; to ensure that elected president or governors do not just sit through their tenure without achieving tangible results incremental to the wellbeing of the people. There has to be a constitutional yardstick with which to measure the performance of government. A single tenure system will not produce any magic for the people if the constitution does not task presidents and governors with fundamental economic rights actionable by the people whenever they feel shortchanged by government.

There should be an Infrastructure and National Development Commission working with human rights associations to list programmes and projects for political parties to adopt and use to canvass for votes to win the electorate over by articulating how they plan to execute them; since political parties are totally bereft of ideologies for social and political action and material deliverables for the people. These, in addition to checks against abuse of power, are the necessary constitutional ingredients to make the single tenure system work differently from the multiple tenure system.

The haste to get the single tenure system off the ground has not provided ample time for considerations of incentive to effective leadership in the first outing of a president or governor, especially one that mounted the saddle at a relatively young age. The constitution should make allowance for an effective president to seek re-election for the same position at a future date, say after 12 years of exit from power. That would be an incentive to good governance and effective leadership; for those who seek reward for excellent performance.

President Goodluck Jonathan should not just be concerned about a fair deal for the sitting president and governors and their lieutenants. He should equally be concerned that the new system should provide lasting solutions to the problems of mediocre performance of elected public officers and the scourge of graft in the corridor of power.

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