Constitution amendment: Ekweremadu re-opens debate on 6-year single term

By Taiye Odewale Abuja—

Th e debate on 6-year single term of offi ce for elected President and Governors in Nigeria that heated up the polity in Nigeria between 2010 and 2011 under Goodluck Jonathan presidency, was reopened at the weekend by the Deputy Senate President , Senator Ike Ekweremadu .

Th is was as he assured Nigerians on fi nancial autonomy for State Houses of Assembly and Local Government Councils across Nigeria. Ekweremadu resuscitated the proposal on 6-year single term of offi ce for President and Governors in Nigeria when he had in audience, the Ambassador of Mexico to Nigeria, Garcia Moreno Elizondo, who paid a courtesy visit to him in Abuja on the fringes of the 57th independence anniversary celebration. He said Nigeria would understudy the Mexican presidential system with a view to benefi ting from the single term for the President and the Governors.

According to him, Nigeria and Mexico had a lot to learn from each other because they had a lot in common, such as vast territories as well as presidential and federal systems of government. He said: “I am aware that Mexico runs a six-year single term presidency known as the sexino.

Th is is something Nigeria will be looking at because what we are doing now has a lot of diffi culties. “So, we are looking at a possibility of constitutional reform that can guarantee a single term so that the money we spend in running elections and the problem of chief executives struggling and concentrating to come back, using resources and instruments of state can be overcome.

“We would like to hear more from you on how the single term works and whether it has been benefi cial to your system so that we can also collaborate in that respect”. He added that the states in Mexico had substantial autonomy and their respective constitutions, noting, therefore, that “when we are talking about devolution power, strengthening our federalism, Mexico is a place where we can look at”.

“Presently, we are trying to see what we can do to empower not just states, but also the Local Governments, so as to strengthen our federalism. And part of the things we are looking at is to get autonomy for the local governments such that they are able to get their funds directly from the Federal Government to special accounts created by each local government. So they get their funding from the federation account straight to their own account at the various states.

“I used to get my funds directly from the Federal Government as a Council Chairman before 1999. But in 1999 all that changed with the introduction of what they call the Joint State/Local Government Account. “Unfortunately, this has been abused in some states, but in some states it has worked. In those states that it has been abused, what we found is that the state governments use those funds to do other projects they call common projects to the detriment of some local governments.

 

 

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