{"id":463610,"date":"2011-07-18T23:19:29","date_gmt":"2011-07-18T23:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/07\/18\/issues-around-jonathan%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%986-years-single-term%e2%80%99\/"},"modified":"2011-07-18T23:19:29","modified_gmt":"2011-07-18T23:19:29","slug":"issues-around-jonathans-6-years-single-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/18\/issues-around-jonathans-6-years-single-term\/","title":{"rendered":"Issues around Jonathan\u2019s \u20186 years single term\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Written by Turaki A. Hassan<\/span> Tuesday, 19 July 2011 00:19<\/span><\/p>\n

Shortly after the April general elections, rumours spilled out that there was a plan to elongate the tenure of the president to six years, which means that instead of leaving office on May 29, 2015, the president will stay for two more years until 2017.<\/p>\n

The presidency was said to have approached Senate President David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, on the issue but the duo were said to have advised that the bill should not be forwarded to the National Assembly now as some Nigerians may not immediately come to terms with the intent and the rationale behind the amendment. Mark and Tambuwal had advised that there should be more public enlightenment campaign to create more awareness about the issue before it is tabled.<\/p>\n

A ranking lawmaker who does not want his name in print told Daily Trust that members of the assembly, including the leadership are in a fix over the matter as they don\u2019t know where the pendulum will swing in terms of public opinion on the proposed six-year term, especially taking into consideration President Obasanjo\u2019s failed bid to secure tenure extension after his lawful two terms.<\/p>\n

The confusion or dilemma about the proposed constitutional alteration is that while it is not in doubt that the bill, when presented, will seek to stipulate a single six year term for the president and 36 state governors, it is not clear when it will take effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not sure of what the president wants to achieve with this. Will he seek an extension of two more years to his present four years term and the same to all first time governors, or will it be something that will not affect him and the governors? That is what is not clear to us,\u201d the MP said.<\/p>\n

Daily Trust gathered that even though the tenure extension in the original draft bill (still at the presidency) does not affect Senators and members of the House of Representatives, the legislators have already started canvassing for inclusion of a clause in it to extend their tenure to six years, but without limit as to how many times they can contest election, unlike those in the executive arm.<\/p>\n

If the tenure extension will take effect from 2015, then the promise the president made before the April general elections that he will quit office in 2015 will come to naught.<\/p>\n

Another problem that may bedevil the exercise is finance as there was no provision for such in the 2011 budget. The last exercise by the 6th National Assembly cost over N4 billion. Without money, MPs may not buy into the project.<\/p>\n

In the same vein, even though state assemblies are known to be stooges of their governors, it is not likely that the MPs at that level will increase the tenure of their governors by two years while theirs remain unaffected. If this happens it means they are likely to reject the bill because it does not cater for their \u201cinterest\u201d as well.<\/p>\n

Apart from tenure elongation, there are other issues which the President was said to be putting forward for alteration in the constitution which include the issue of revenue formula. Already, members of the House of Representatives have joined the governors of the 36 states in calling for review of the revenue sharing formula to enable them pay the new minimum wage.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Daily Trust gathered that another \u2018hidden agenda\u2019 in the proposed amendment is that of resource control. This is said to have been pushed by the oil producing states of the Niger Delta, even though there is proposal to make all states have control over whatever natural resources they are endowed with in a move to garner support from non-oil producing states.<\/p>\n

Constitutional amendment exercise is a very cumbersome project to execute. First the bill will have to be read the first time after which the House will debate its general merit and principles in the second reading. A committee on constitutional amendment will have to be set up and saddled with the responsibility of processing it. The committee will invite memorandum from the public and hold a public hearing in the six geo-political zones of the country. The report of the public hearing will then be presented to the House for clause-by-clause consideration and it requires that 2\/3rd of the 360 members and 109 senators must vote in favour of each clause before it will be read for a third time and passed.<\/p>\n

If there are areas of differences between the Senate and House versions, a conference or harmonisation committees will be constituted by the two chambers which will meet and agree on some common grounds and report back to each chamber before final votes are taken.<\/p>\n

Section 9 of the 1999 constitution provides that at least 2\/3rd of the 36 state Houses of Assembly must ratify any amendment done to the constitution before it can be effective. The section reads partly: \u201cThe National Assembly may, subject to the provision of this section, alter any of the provisions of this Constitution. An Act of the National Assembly for the alteration of this Constitution, not being an Act to which section 8 of this Constitution applies, shall not be passed in either House of the National Assembly unless the proposal is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of all the members of that House and approved by resolution of the Houses of Assembly of not less than two-thirds of all the states.\u201d<\/p>\n

This means that the Federal legislature will transmit the harmonised\u00a0 copy to the states and the state assemblies will also vote on each clause and return same to the National Assembly. Pending the determination of the case before the Supreme Court, the President must also assent to the bill before it can be said to have been amended. All things being equal, these long processes may take a minimum of two to three years to complete. By then the tenure of the present administration may have come to an end, which is why some observers wonder whether it is just another diversionary tactics being put forward from certain quarters. The coming days, weeks, nay months will surely reveal the true picture of what the Jonathan administration is up to with the proposed constitutional amendment.<\/p>\n

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Hassan Tuesday, 19 July 2011 00:19 Shortly after the April general elections, rumours spilled out that there was a plan to elongate the tenure of the president to six years, which means that instead of leaving office on May 29, 2015, the president will stay for two more years until 2017. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-463610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nIssues around Jonathan\u2019s \u20186 years single term\u2019 - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/18\/issues-around-jonathans-6-years-single-term\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Issues around Jonathan\u2019s \u20186 years single term\u2019 - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Written by Turaki A. 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