The constitution of a country dictate guidelines that should lead the running of government and the governed, so in tampering with it under any guise, amendment or review, the benefits to all concerned should be the driving force.

Proponents of six year single tenure have continually said the benefit of this bill is to reduce the tension in the polity that usually characterised any electioneering and the inherent cost.

As regarding to the country, what the proponents of this bill fail to understand is that, between 1999 and 2017, four elections would have been conducted by the INEC if the country were to have been operating a six-year single tenure. But under the current renewable four year tenure, five elections have been conducted under the same period. So, is the constitution worth tinkering with just because of trying to avoid just one election in a period 18 years (1999-2017).

If the politicians are at disadvantage with the current system maybe because of cost of participating in an election, INEC has already been mandated to check the amount of money that should be spent by each political party and candidates. Inability to enforce this should not be shifted to amending the constitution.

The promoter of this bill should tell us how it will benefit the fisherman in Niger Delta whose source of living has been polluted by oil spill or the young graduate who cannot secure employment because the industries are dead due to power failure, or better still reduce the abject poverty in the midst of plenty.

A sitting President/governor will heat up the polity by just supporting a candidate for election. This was evident in 2007 when a sitting present had an anointed candidate, it was declared a ‘do or die’ affair not because a re-election was sought or because it was four year tenure but because the outgoing president wanted to have an eye in government. This came into play in the 2011 election in Ogun state.

So it is not the second term bid that heats up the polity but ‘do-or-die’ attitude of politicians which cannot be addressed by six year tenure.

*Olumide Adeyemi, a Postgraduate student of Obafemi Awolowo University.