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| National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani |
By: John Shiklam
The north, through the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), whose
membership cuts across the three geopolitical zones in the area, said in a
statement yesterday in Kaduna that if the proposal sails through, it could
portend a great danger to democracy.
It explained that a single tenure of six years would not
guarantee good governance and development. Instead, it would promote looting of
the state’s resources with impunity, the ACF said.
Such a provision, according to the ACF, would be
counterproductive, pointing out that it cannot promote good governance which
goes with purposeful leadership.
The Senate Committee on the Review of the Constitution in
recommending the single tenure for the topmost political office holders at the
state and federal levels, argued that it was done with the aim of checking the
acrimony that usually trailed re-election bids by them.
The forum stated further in the statement signed by its
National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani, that a single tenure lacked the
basic elements of motivation and incentives needed in the management of human
affairs for performance.
The ACF said with the single tenure system, there would be
no incentives, motivation and reward that could inspire presidents and
governors, whose tenures would be determined by the amendment, to perform
excellently.
Further justifying its opposition to the proposal, the ACF
said the system had to do with the fact that the good, the not-so-good and
feckless leaders, were grouped together without any distinction, adding that
the practice cannot deliver on good governance.
It added that most countries of the world practised the
multiple tenure system, which enables leaders to aspire for excellence in the
hope of being rewarded by the electorate by getting re-elected.
ACF said: “Those countries, which put limits on their
multiple system, like America, do so as a deliberate effort to allow the
ingress of fresh hands into governance and leadership. That is to say, they
make allowance for motivation and incentives that inspire strides for
excellence and also makes allowance for new hands into the multiple tenure
system.
“As to the fear of abuse of incumbency prevalent in our
political cockpit, it is to be noted that countries device their own ways of
curtailing such abuses and do not sacrifice performance by killing motivation,
incentives and rewards in the management of human affairs.
“While developed nations have made efforts in brains and
brawn to enable their citizens make judicious use of their democratic rights to
make their votes count, developing nations are still struggling and so try to
put some mechanisms that can check abuse of incumbency.
“For example, Chile practises a multiple tenure system that
is not consecutive. That is to say, the constitution does not allow a president
or governor of a state to conduct an election in which he is a candidate and
that was why the extremely popular president in the person of Madam Michel
could not contest for the presidency during the last elections in Chile.
“In the alternative, Nigeria can consider the Bangladesh model
which uses a caretaker government to conduct elections. Again, this is because
the single tenure cannot manage for performance without incentives, motivation
and reward.
“In the single tenure system, the only motivation would be
the pillage of state resources that go with unbridled access to state or
national resources. The single tenure system is therefore counterproductive.”
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