A Senate committee has proposed a non-renewable single six year tenure for the office of President, Vice-President, governors and their deputies.
According to reports, a National Assembly member who knew about the recommendation was quoted as saying:
“We thought hard before arriving at this decision. We considered the current heating up of the polity by those interested in running for office in 2015.
“We also looked at what normally happens each time we are about to enter into an election year.
“If the recommendation scales through, none of the current office holders from the President down will benefit from it.
“It is couched in such a way that if someone is elected as Vice-President for instance and he becomes President for the reason of the removal from office of the President, either through ill health, impeachment or death, he can only serve out the term of the President even if it is just one month.
“He or she, as the case may be, will be ineligible to present himself for election as President in subsequent elections; the same applies to the office of the governor and deputy governor.”
The National Assembly member reportedly said that the committee also suggested sovereignty for local government administrations and if the recommendation is accepted, the legislative process, local government councils will collect their monthly allocations from the federation account.
“There is a caveat. Only local government councils with elected council chairmen and properly constituted councils will receive such payments,” the source added.