Atiku calls for single six-year term for President

Former Vice president and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 election, Atiku Abubakar, has advocated for constitutional amendments.

Atiku specifically called for a single six-year term for President to be rotated among the six geo-political zones.

Atiku made the proposals while speaking on Monday October 30, 2023 on the verdict of the Supreme Court that dismissed his appeals against President Bola Tinubu, called for the adoption of six-year rotational presidency.

He stated that this will reduce the desperation of incumbents and distractions from governing and also to promote equity and national unity.

According to him, “In order to reduce the desperation of incumbents and distractions from governing and also to promote equity and national unity, we need to move to a single six-year term for President to be rotated among the six geo-political zones. This will prevent the ganging up of two or more geo-political zones to alternate the presidency among themselves to the exclusion of other zones.”

S’Court verdict: Nigeria is doomed, I’m not a loser — Atiku

Atiku also make some proposals that will prevent any court or tribunal from hiding behind technicalities and legal sophistry to affirm electoral heists and undermine the will of the people.

He said: “Firstly, we must make electronic voting and collation of results mandatory. This is the 21st century and countries less advanced than Nigeria are doing so already. It is only bold initiatives that transform societies.

“Secondly, we must provide that all litigation arising from a disputed election must be concluded before the inauguration of a winner. This was the case in 1979. The current time frame between elections and inauguration of winners is inadequate to dispense with election litigations.

“What we have currently is akin to asking thieves to keep their loot and use the same to defend themselves while the case of their robbery is being decided. It only encourages mandate banditry rather than discourages it.

“Thirdly, in order to ensure popular mandate and real representation, we must move to require a candidate for President to earn 50% +1 of the valid votes cast, failing which a run-off between the top two candidates will be held. Most countries that elect their presidents use this Two-Round System (with slight variations) rather than our current First-Past-the-Post system.”

Atiku said in addition to these proposed constitutional amendments, the Electoral Act should be amended to provide that, except where they explicitly violate the Constitution and other laws, the rules and procedures laid down by the electoral umpire and made public for the benefit of the contestants and the voters will be treated as sacrosanct by the courts in deciding on election disputes.

“A referee cannot be allowed to set the rules for the game only to change or ignore them when one side has scored a goal or is about to win the match. We must restore confidence in our electoral system which the current leadership of INEC has completely eroded and undermined,” the PDP presidential candidate said.

The Star