A former Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Dr Doyin Okupe, has said the proposed single-tenure rotational presidency is a great idea for a developing country like Nigeria.
Mr Okupe, a former presidential spokesman, who made the statement during an interview on Sunday in Lagos, however, said it should not be approached hastily.
A bill seeking a single-term of six years for president and state governors was brought up recently by 35 members of the House of Representatives.
The bill also canvasses the rotation of the presidency among the six geo-political zones of the country.
Mexico is one of the few countries in the world operating a six-year single tenure presidency.
In his reaction, Mr Okupe, a former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct National Republican Convention, said that many things were wrong with the 1999 Constitution despite the amendments it had undergone.
“I don’t think we should do this kind of reform (constitutional amendment) in a haphazard manner. There is so much that is wrong with the constitution we are operating. There is so much confusion and contradiction in the 1999 Constitution as prescribed and handed over to us by the military. I would rather have us have a holistic approach to this reform or amendment. The six year single tenure for president and governors is okay in a developing nation like this and I have no objection to it. Yes, it is good we can have a six-year single tenure rotational presidency. However, the rotational part should be clearly stated in the constitution among the six zones,” Mr Okupe said.
He said that the National Assembly should not just review the tenure alone, but must go ahead and do many other reforms, especially in the electoral system.
According to him, there is also confusion about whether Nigeria is running a federal system or unitary system which any reform must address.
He added that if the nation must have the reform, the presidential system of government must be jettisoned for parliamentary system “where we have a prime minister that would be elected by his colleagues from the parliament. The prime minister will run the country under the supervision of the elected president .The role of the president will be limited and be very clear. And if the people are not satisfied with the prime minister, they can go to the parliament to remove him and put someone else. This is a country of over 200 million people; a lot of destinies are involved. There is no need for us to patch and patch it. If the constitution is not okay, let us attend to it properly.”
Commenting on the 2014 National Conference, Mr Okupe said that the recommendations of the confab organised by former President Goodluck Jonathan would have delivered an acceptable constitution if implemented.
Mr Okupe said, “Everybody agreed and everybody consented. Why don’t we bring that up to have something that is reasonable? We just add other issues like a single-term rotational presidency. And if we are going to do it, the time for it is now. We need to get things corrected once and for all. We are where we are because new are just satisfied managing the same constitution that has not helped us.’’
(NAN)