On Wednesday, 17th of July, the Bill seeking a six-year single term for President, Governors, and Local Government Areas Chairmen scaled first reading. The bill aims to amend the 1999 constitution to provide for a single term of six years for these political offices to curb wastages occasioned by four years of periodic elections.
The members representing Ideato North/Ideato South Federal Constituency, Imo State, Ikenga Ugochinyere, and 50 other lawmakers sponsored the private member bill. The proposed bill cited as “Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As amended) (Alteration) Bill 2024” seeks to alter Sections 7, 135, 137, 180, and 182 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
“If we do not conduct election into the presidential, governorship and chairmanship seats as frequently as we do presently, surely we would be saving some tens of billions of naira,”, said Gideon Adeyeni, Programme Officer at Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA).
Corruption is still extensive in Nigeria despite a slight improvement in the latest ranking by a global anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International. In TI’s newly-released 2023 Corruption Perception Index, Nigeria listed 145 among 180 countries and scored 25 out of 100 points. This is an insignificant upgrade on the country’s position in 2022 when it ranked 150 among 180 countries with 24 from 100 points.
Over the years, Nigerian politicians have been enmeshed in several levels of corruption and public funds mismanagement. In May, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) filed a lawsuit against Nigeria’s 36 governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Mr Nyesom Wike “over their failure to account for the spending of trillions of FAAC allocations collected by their states and the FCT since 1999.”
The suit followed reports that the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursed N1.123 trillion to the federal, state, and local governments for March 2024. They shared N1.208 trillion in April. States collected N398.689 billion in March while they collected N403.403 billion in April.
In a 2022 report, the federal government said between March 2021 and May 2022, a total of €6,324,627 was recovered from foreign countries as funds were looted from Nigeria. Abubakar Malami, minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation.
This had made Gideon argue if this bill would significantly improve efficiency in government. According to him, the bill might not be effective since the legislative seats are not to be affected by the amendment.
“ The question that would come to mind is that how significant this reduction would be, especially since the legislative seats are not to be affected by the amendment. The fact that the legislative seats at local, state and federal level are not affected by the amendment already create a lacuna in the law. By and large, a serious legislation to cut governance cost and increase efficiency would seek to reduce the earnings of elected government officials across all levels and make information about this accessible to citizens.
“ If truly the country is as broke as it is being claimed, in which government investment in basic services like education, water supply et cetera, are being reduced, then perhaps there is the need to consider reducing the size of the legislative arm of government especially at the federal level. This is why some activists are calling for a unicameral legislative system. A bill addressing this would perhaps be more useful at this point.
He argued that despite the possibulity of this bill reducing wastages, there is need to focus on other areas where we can cut wastages, which include the earnings of public officials and large size of their cabinet.
“ Essentially, there is the need to focus on other areas where we can cut wastages. The earnings of public officials and large size of their cabinet (special advisers, aide, etc), religious, medical and educational tourism among government officials, should be given attention in order to really cut government wastages,” he said.