A Six-Year Single Term Would’ve Discouraged Desperate Politicians – Atiku

Posted by: Folamidavid in News, Politics Dec 17, 2019

Ex-Vice President, Atiku Abubakar is disappointed at the House of Representatives’ rejection of the 6-year single term proposal for president and governors in the country.

In a recent statement issued in Abuja by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, Abubakar said he is not happy with the way our lawmakers turned down the proposal at the expense of the larger interest of Nigeria.

According to him, with the problems Nigeria’s democratic system is facing, especially the rigging issue that rejects the will of the people, a 6-year single term would have ended these cruel practices in our electoral process.

He added that it would’ve been the perfect way to reduce the desperation of some politicians.

His words, “The desperation for the 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 a better opportunity to fulfill their campaign promises.

“An inherently incompetent incumbent will perform below average even if you give him/her 20 years in office or give him or her $20 billion.”

“Second term obsession rewards incompetence by allowing failed incumbents to be re-elected 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 the right of first refusal.”