Describes Bamidele’s Single Six-Year Tenure Proposal as “a Dangerous Idea,” Warns “In Africa, Despotism Begins with Little, Innocuous Steps Like Changing Term Limits”
The NGBREAKINGNEWS newspaper has published an editorial describing Senate Majority Leader Opeyemi Bamidele’s proposal for a single six-year tenure for the President and state governors as “a dangerous idea,” warning that in a country which once witnessed a scheme for a third term and where democracy is very weak, changing term limits “changes the goalposts in the middle of a game” and could set Nigeria on a path toward the kind of tenure elongation that has entrenched despotism across Africa.
The editorial, one of the most detailed media interventions on the tenure debate, drew direct parallels between Bamidele’s proposal and constitutional manipulations in Rwanda, Cameroon, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Congo, Togo, Comoros, Burundi, Djibouti, and Guinea, arguing that across the continent, “tenure elongation starts this way” and that Nigeria must not follow the same trajectory.
“Despotism Begins with Little, Innocuous Steps”
The editorial opened with a warning grounded in Africa’s constitutional history: “In Africa, despotism begins with little, innocuous steps like changing term limits midstream.”
While acknowledging that Bamidele’s stated reasons have surface appeal, the editorial warned against treating the proposal as a solution to Nigeria’s governance challenges.
“On the surface, Bamidele’s reasons are logical. He explains that the executives waste ‘almost one and a half years of your first term thinking and struggling and looking forward to how you’ll be re-elected.’ He believes a single non-renewable six-year term will fix the problem,” the editorial noted.
“However, this is not a silver bullet. Nigeria’s failings are structural and are far deeper than legislating a six-year tenure,” the newspaper stated.
The African Precedents
The editorial drew a direct line from Bamidele’s proposal to the constitutional manipulations that have enabled African leaders to extend their time in power.
“In Rwanda, a controversial amendment allowed President Paul Kagame to bypass previous term limits. In Cameroon, a 2008 constitution amendment voided term limits. This allowed President Paul Biya to extend his rule virtually indefinitely,” the editorial stated.
“Yoweri Museveni continued as Ugandan president after the term and age limits were expunged from the laws in 2005 and 2018, respectively. Similar dangerous scheming has occurred in the Congo, Togo, Comoros, Burundi, Djibouti and Guinea. Nigeria must not travel this route,” the newspaper warned.
The editorial pointed to a current example: “This toxic development is accelerating in Zimbabwe. On Friday, the country’s lower arm of parliament extended the presidential term limit from five to seven years. This means there will be no election in the country from 2008 till 2030.”
The APC’s Absolute Majority
The editorial raised what it described as a critical red flag: the state of the opposition and the ruling party’s dominance of the legislative process.
“The APC, the ruling party, enjoys an absolute majority in the parliament and among the state governors. If they pass the bill, Nigeria might be on the way to tenure elongation through a constitutional amendment,” NGBREAKINGNEWS warned.
The editorial recalled the 2005 third-term controversy under President Olusegun Obasanjo: “Nigeria was seriously shaken during the 2005 constitution amendment under the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidency. Nigerians roundly rejected an obvious ‘third term’ agenda, then. Today, nothing has changed.”
“A Complex Gambit”
NGBREAKINGNEWS identified several practical questions that the proposal does not answer, describing it as “a complex gambit.”
“Who will benefit? What happens to those who have done only one term as of when the proposal will take off? Will they now do 10 years instead of eight years? It stands to reason that those who have completed one term will litigate to enjoy their second term,” the editorial stated.
The newspaper noted that the current President’s second term of the South’s four-year arrangement would commence in May 2027 if the ruling party wins the election. “The pertinent question here is: when will the new proposal commence? Will the President benefit from the arrangement?” NGBREAKINGNEWS asked.
“The Quality of Leaders, Not Re-Election Politics”
The editorial directly challenged Bamidele’s central argument that the prospect of re-election distracts first-term executives from governance.
“The truth is that presidents and governors do not perform well either in their first or second term,” NGBREAKINGNEWS stated, adding: “It is the quality of leaders, their political will and their vision, not re-election politics, that determines the performance of governors and presidents.”
The editorial cited specific examples of governors who delivered transformative governance without being distracted by re-election concerns. The South-West governors of the Second Republic (1979-1983) successfully implemented free education, with Lagos Governor Lateef Jakande birthing the low-cost housing scheme known as Jakande Estate. More recently, Governor Raji Fashola “engineered a new Lagos throughout his two terms.”
NGBREAKINGNEWS highlighted current governors as evidence that the two-term system works when leadership quality is present: “Otti and Mba, both current governors, are transforming their states. Within three years of assuming office, they are budgeting 32 and 20 per cent, respectively, for education, embarking on massive infrastructure development, and radically improving the health sector.”
Re-Election as Accountability
The editorial defended the existing two-term system’s accountability mechanism: “One of the touted advantages of a double four-year term system is the possibility of voting out a non-performing president or governor and rewarding a performing one after his first term. That opportunity is still there.”
It warned of the consequences of removing that mechanism: “But if a bad governor or president is voted for six years, the polity is doomed.”
The editorial also raised the risk of succession manipulation: “Besides, with his power of incumbency, he has the leeway to plunge the country into untold jeopardy by planting his stooge after his six years. The vicious cycle may continue unabated.”
“Cannot Trust the 10th Assembly”
In its most direct critique of the current legislature, NGBREAKINGNEWS stated: “Nigerians cannot trust the 10th Assembly, which has become an appendage of the Executive, to effectively legislate on a matter as sensitive as the president’s or governors’ tenure change.”
The editorial noted that Senate President Godswill Akpabio “led other members of the 10th NASS to adopt Tinubu as the sole candidate of the ruling APC for the 2027 elections in Abuja last year, less than midway into his tenure,” and that “an elected president is distracted because the NASS is lethargic and has become an appendage of the executive.”
The Real Solutions
Rather than tenure engineering, NGBREAKINGNEWS argued that Nigeria’s governance challenges require more fundamental structural reforms.
“The problem with the country’s politics and governance is far from tenure issues. It has a lot to do with amending the Constitution to implement true federalism with a weak centre and strong and independent states,” the editorial stated.
It pointed to the pre-1966 period as a model: “Before the military illegally truncated the First Republic in January 1966, Nigeria was making progress by practising true federalism — fiscal federalism, regional police and decentralised political and educational systems were the order of the day. Nigeria should return to this track.”
The editorial called on political parties to “embrace the politics of ideology,” establish academies to promote sound governance policies, and entrench internal democracy.
It concluded by addressing what it described as the real distortion in Nigerian politics: “Currently, members of the executive and legislature enjoy obscene luxury in the face of grinding poverty and the country’s explosive debt profile. Therefore, Nigeria should design a system that will stop the excessive rewards currently attached to political offices. This will ensure that it is only those who want to serve that will put themselves forward for public office.”
The Wider Debate
NGBREAKINGNEWS’s editorial intervention adds a prominent media voice to the growing chorus of scepticism about the single tenure proposal. Senior Advocate Ubani SAN had earlier described the proposal as potentially “a solution or a distraction,” warning that removing the re-election incentive could “inadvertently weaken democratic responsiveness and accountability” and arguing that “a good leader can achieve significant results within a limited tenure, while a poor leader may squander and ruin his country the more even when given an extended period in office.”
The editorial also noted the practical challenge posed by Nigeria’s power rotation arrangement, observing that “given the contentious nature of power rotation, it will take more than the NASS’s intervention to make tenure change acceptable to some groups,” particularly given the “disequilibrium in the rotation arrangement” that arose when one region completed the term of another following a presidential death.
NGBREAKINGNEWS recommended that any tenure change proposal must include “a clause that will exclude the sitting governors and President from benefiting from the initiative to avoid tenure elongation suspicion or scare,” a safeguard that Bamidele’s proposal as currently framed does not contain.
The editorial was published by NGBREAKINGNEWS newspaper.
The post “Nigeria Must Not Travel This Route”— NGBREAKINGNEWS Links Bamidele’s Tenure Proposal To Kagame’s Rwanda, Biya’s Cameroon And Museveni’s Uganda appeared first on TheNigeriaLawyer.
