Jennifer Y Omiloli
Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, expressed disappointment with the speed at which the House of Representatives rejected the six-year proposal for a single term for president and governors.
“An inherently incompetent incumbent will perform below average even if you give him/her 20 years in office or give him or her $20bn dollars,” Atiku stressed.
Atiku expressed his disappointment in a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja by his Media Adviser, Mr. Paul Ibe, while responding on Monday’s House rejection of the bill.
Atiku said in part: “The desperation for second term by the incumbents is the main reason why they go for broke and set the rule book on fire, thereby making free and fair elections impossible by legitimising rigging at the expense of their challengers that have no access to public funds.
“A situation where the incumbents deploy more public resources to their second term projects than using the funds for people’s welfare encourages massive rigging that undermines electoral integrity.
“Six-year single term would remove such desperation and enable the incumbents to concentrate on the job for which they were elected in the first place.
“I don’t agree with the logic that eight years would give elected leaders better opportunity to fulfill their campaign promises.
“Second term obsession rewards incompetence by allowing failed incumbents to be reelected regardless of their performance record.
“It also denies political parties the opportunity to replace failed incumbents with better candidates within the parties in the name of right of first refusal.”
