Ike Ekweremadu Restates Call For Single Term For President, Governors

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The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has reiterated his call for Nigeria to embrace single term tenure for those occupying executive positions at the state and federal levels.
Ekweremadu said this on his Facebook page yesterday.

He noted that Nigeria’s political atmosphere was getting toxic ahead of the 2019 general elections and that governance was taking a backseat.

He predicted that the atmosphere, with what he described as “the accompanying brazen political excesses,” was not likely to abate until well after the 2019 general elections.


He said, “The feverish political climate in the country today, once again, justifies the call by some of us for a single term of five or six years for the President and governors.

“Although a renewable four-year term is popular, societies are dynamic and it is up to us to make necessary constitutional adjustments to safeguard our democracy and make periods leading up to our elections less toxic.

“For over 150 years, starting from George Washington up to Harry Truman, there was no term limit for Presidents of the United States of America.

“In fact, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt served four terms (although he died just 11 weeks into his fourth term). It was the 22nd Amendment, which was ratified on February 27, 1951, that gave birth to the two-term limit for US presidents.”

He explained that when the Latin Americans discovered the penchant of incumbents for self-perpetuation, overheated their polities and threatened their democracies, they adopted the single term presidency until such a time their respective democracies matured and stabilised.

Ekweremadu said, “In Nigeria’s case, we proposed a single term for the President and governors with several transitional options during the constitution amendment exercise in the 7th National Assembly. Unfortunately, it was misunderstood by various political and sectional interests for various reasons and the proposal did not succeed.

“However, I strongly believe a single term of five or six years for President and governors, even if for a stipulated period as was the case with several Latin American democracies, is something Nigerians should revisit after the 2019 general elections.