By TONY NYONG

Honourable Uwem Udoma is a former Deputy Speaker of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, and  chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Akwa Ibom State. He was the Chairman House Committee on Economic Planning and Development in the Fourth Assembly. A businessman with bias in road construction, he declared his support for the single term proposal in an interview with Vanguard.

What is your response to the proposal for a single term for the President and Governors?
Well this is a kind of innovation in constitutional amendment. We have had the first and the second amendments. The constitution is not sacrosanct. It was made by Nigerians and it could be changed any day, anytime. If we have a system of government that we cannot do away with then we are not ready for challenges and changes.

Tenure is not sacrosanct in the constitution, we made it four years, renewable for another four years, and we can decide to make it single tenure of six years and I support the six year single tenure because the pressure that the President and Governors go through while administering the affairs of the nation will not be there if it is just a single tenure.

A Governor or the President will have a road map and will have a plan that would end his government under six years.

So many governors have been doing things under pressure and they give lots of what they are not supposed to give to the people because of the pressure for a second term.

Clapping for the president

But if a governor knows that he has only a single term of six years, he would do his best because he knows that by the end of the six years he would leave the office, hence would do his best because he would be judged by the six years. Even if a governor does eight years, he would be judged for the eight years, so six years single tenure to me is something that Nigerians should even clap for the President.

I support it and would want the National Assembly to debate it round the six geo-political zones and ask the people, if Nigerians say they want a six year single tenure for the Presidency so be it. If we practice it and tomorrow we say we can no longer continue with the arrangement we can strike it out, or go back to what has been there before, or even make it any number of years that we want.

It is not the single term or the double term, or the four years that really matters, it is only the dividends of democracy that we are interested in. If he can deliver in six years better. What if the governor cannot even deliver in the eight years of double term? Is it not to support the one that can deliver in six years of a single term? Then if you have a governor that can deliver in six years but the time is not enough, that governor still has an opportunity to wait for another six years to lapse and can still comeback. The present governor of Kano State was there in 1999, exited in 2003, and by 2011 he was there, so if a governor is good and the people still want him back, only six years will be out and the person will come back to the seat.

The minorities will also have hope for power shift, and it will also go round. We should not shy away from the fact that we have six geo-political zones and each zone that has never tested the Presidency will never be satisfied, no matter how the Presidents of the other zones are good, the particular zone that has not tested it will also seek to be there one single day. So if we make it a single term of six years, then it is better for Nigerians, rather than give one individual eight years of double term and he is not performing. Some governors have done well in Nigeria, but we also know that a good number of them have not augured well for this country, so their eight years of double term is a waste.

All the present governors and the present President should not benefit from this constitutional amendment for it to work out well. If they benefit from it then we are having tenure elongation, which will take us back to what former President Obasanjo could not do, and if Nigerians are assured that it will start in 2015, then we will have many Nigerians welcoming the idea.

Why should they not benefit?
Because that would mean that they are amending these laws for themselves. For it to be seen that it is upright, fair and open for the benefit of the nation, then they should not be the immediate beneficiaries, if they have to benefit, let it be that it is after 2015, when all the present governors are no longer there.

Should there be also term limits for National Assembly and State legislators?

You can never have that. The tenure of the legislator can never be limited. Everywhere in the world, it is a limitless arrangement as far as the parliament is concerned. They can go as many times as they like. If they do well, better for them, even in the present constitution that we are having now, the tenure of the legislators is limitless, but the tenure of the governors and the President is limited to only two terms of four years each. So we are only amending to give them a single term of six years, but that of the legislators you cannot limit them.

Many Nigerians doubt the sincerity of the President. They allege he is doing this to suit him?

It is only by sheer providence that he became the President of Nigeria. Anybody could have been that lucky either from the North or the South, or anywhere. Before anything is done, it is always discussed at a certain level. It is only left for Nigerians to reject the idea if it is not good for the country, but if it is good enough for the country, then we should allow it to stay.