6-year single term proposal will curtail corruption, election rigging, others – Nnamchi
A prominent federal lawmaker, Hon (Prof) Paul Nnamchi representing Enugu East/lsi-Uzo Federal Constituency of Enugu State in the House of Representatives has thrown his weight behind the 6 year single term proposal for presidents, governors, legislators and other office holders.
He arguied that it will go a long way towards eliminating embezzlement of funds, vote buying, vote rigging, electoral violence and other excesses associated with the pressure to garner a second term in office.
In a chat with newsmen in Abuja, Hon Paul Nnamchi expatiated further on his forthright stance: ‘lnstead of serving 8 years, you serve a single 6 years term in office and leave a worthy legacy for your people. I believe no one is born intrinsically bad, most office holders want to leave a good legacy but the present political system is not suited for that.
“So we want to create a system that will allow leaders to serve their people well. The present system allows you to go for two terms and even if you don’t want to go for a second term, relations, friends, aides and associates will mount pressure on you to go for another term at all costs.
“Our proposal allows you to serve for a single 6 year term and leave a good legacy not to focus solely on securing a second term for self-serving or self-aggrandizing ends. I support the 6 year single term but if the generality of the people support a 4 year single term so be it, our proposal is not final but subject to amendment if so desired.
“The main reason for this single term offer is to reduce the undue focus on re-election which motivates people to embezzle funds and amass public funds, for no other reason than to win a second term in office. Thus they perpetrate vote buying, vote rigging, election violence, all to ensure a second term in office.
“A typical instance is the usual argument against state police which is that the state governors will use it to perpetrate violence against their opponents. Thus even if we have state police and the governors don’t have to run for a second term, there is virtually no opponents for them to use the state police against. The reason is that the state police will have a greater degree of neutrality and impartiality if the single term governors do not have an opponent to run against.”
According to the lawmaker, any person running for governor or president is doing so for the first time and there is no incumbent to run against who might be tempted to use the instruments of state or state resources against his opponents. Also if the office holder is not performing well, we have checks and balances to sanction him or her, for instance the legislature can checkmate the president or governor by means of impeachment or notice of impeachment while the legislators can also be sanctioned by utilizing the recall process.
“So you don’t have to wait for the end of his/her tenure to administer the appropriate sanctions against a public officer; for instance Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister is facing a good deal of criticism from parliament for traveling to Normandy, France for the D-Day ceremonies inappropriately and this goes to show that a leader can face sanctions at any point in time not just at the end of his/her tenure.”
Hon Paul Nnamchi also commiserated with the traders, artisans and other business people whose shops were demolished in Ogige Nsukka Market and called on the Enugu State government to provide alternative means of livelihood for the affected traders.
“l deeply symphathize with the traders whose shops were demolished in the Ogige, Nsukka Market demolition exercise and l also feel that the Enugu State government should look for ways and means of ameliorating their plight because governance is about putting the welfare of the people first. In another vein, l believe that the state government wants development, growth and expansion in the area, it is not the first time a state government will embark on such exercise, the previous governments also did similar exercises but the approach may be different.
“I feel the government should do a better job at explaining to the people the salient reasons for the demolition exercise. Change will always be resisted but l feel that the government ultimately has good intentions for the people and demolitions are going on in other parts of Enugu State not only in Nsukka. So the state governor should engage the people directly and explain to them why the exercise is going on and the ultimate benefits they will derive after it is done as well as providing alternative means of livelihood to those adversely affected by the demolition exercise.”
On the crucial issue of oil, gas and other mineral exploration, Hon Paul Nnamchi called for urgent decentralisation of mining licences nationwide to enable state governments exploit such resources in conjunction with foreign partners to enable fastrack economic and industrial development of their various regions.
“It is a fact that this country is blessed with abundant natural and mineral resources and for the states to benefit, there needs to be an urgent decentralisation of the issuance of mining licences so that the states can be involved in the mining process to enable them generate income for the development of their areas. If the states are given the necessary mining leverage, they can negotiate with foreign investors to explore and exploit their mineral resources so that the states can establish industries and provide employment and generate income for their people.
“Governance is not only about building roads, bridges or other infrastructure because after the end of your 8 year tenure, the roads will become dilapidated and another government has to start afresh to repair the roads and attention will focus once more on infrastructure without anyone considering setting up of industries, factories, firms etc to create jobs and employ the teeming youths. The people will not survive without gainful employment, and without industries, their will be no employment, zero economic growth and the people will go hungry.
“So the emphasis now is on building infrastructure and not on creating jobs and employment for the people but if you allow the states to exploit their mineral resources, they should be able to establish industries and create jobs that will enable their people to be gainfully employed.”
