By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
Calabar — Senate Leader, Chief Victor Ndoma-Egba, has said that the proposed six-year single term for the President and 36 state governors of the federation had been hijacked by a section of the public who now gave it a different interpretation.

Ndoma-Egba, in an interview in Calabar, Cross River State, denied allegation that the Senate deliberately killed the proposal which emanated from the Presidency to frustrate President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

Ndoma-Egba said: “It has not even reached the National Assembly for us to consider it. It is a proposal that we read on the pages of papers like other Nigerians.

“The proposal has not reached the National Assembly. We have a process. Single term will require constitution amendment.

“In the mechanics for constitution amendment, the states must be involved; there is no constitutional amendment that was started by the National Assembly and ends with the National Assembly.”

“The states are involved and the implication of having states involved is that for any amendment to be passed, you must have the approval of at least two-thirds of the state Houses of Assembly in the country.

“The implication, in my view, is that before you can pass any amendment to the constitution, including the proposal for a six-years single term, you must have enough national discussion on the issue and a national consensus has to be built around it.”