UNITED States (U.S.)-based Nigerians have condemned the proposed single tenure bill that President Goodluck Jonathan announced last week, as a New York based pro-democracy group, the Nigeria Democratic Liberty Forum (NDLF), expressed shock over the idea yesterday.
In a statement on the proposal, the NDLF, which hosts the Nigeria Peoples Parliament in the U.S. said it received the news “with consternation,” calling it “a tenure elongation gimmick of President Goodluck.”
Taking on the president on his justification for the proposal, the U.S.-based group said it was needless to state “that the temptation to elongate tenure has been a recurring decimal in the annals of misgovernance in Nigeria but strikingly the failure of those who embark(ed) on this treacherous route to learn from history is exasperating.”
According to NDLF, “notwithstanding the claim that this elongation would not include current office holders, we are aware of the huge state resources that were deployed to ensure the emergence of President Jonathan as his party’s flag-bearer in the primaries despite his party’s zoning arrangement and at the general election.”
The statement signed by Mr. Bukola Oreofe, the executive director, added that without doubt, the dominance of members of the president’s political party in the National Assembly and as state governors “would guarantee an easy manipulation of the process in his favour.”
Continuing, the group stated that, “the implausible argument of a tenure elongation as a remedy to address the cost of elections and the attendant tension during election period is ludicrous.”
This is because, according to the U.S.-based Nigerians, the idea only exposes “a poor rationalisation in order to deceive the people.”
According to the pro-democracy forum, the need to seek re-election after four years as it is right now, allows the people to assess the performance of Nigerian public office holders and determine if they merit such positions or there is a need for a change.
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In a statement on the proposal, the NDLF, which hosts the Nigeria Peoples Parliament in the U.S. said it received the news “with consternation,” calling it “a tenure elongation gimmick of President Goodluck.”
Taking on the president on his justification for the proposal, the U.S.-based group said it was needless to state “that the temptation to elongate tenure has been a recurring decimal in the annals of misgovernance in Nigeria but strikingly the failure of those who embark(ed) on this treacherous route to learn from history is exasperating.”
According to NDLF, “notwithstanding the claim that this elongation would not include current office holders, we are aware of the huge state resources that were deployed to ensure the emergence of President Jonathan as his party’s flag-bearer in the primaries despite his party’s zoning arrangement and at the general election.”
The statement signed by Mr. Bukola Oreofe, the executive director, added that without doubt, the dominance of members of the president’s political party in the National Assembly and as state governors “would guarantee an easy manipulation of the process in his favour.”
Continuing, the group stated that, “the implausible argument of a tenure elongation as a remedy to address the cost of elections and the attendant tension during election period is ludicrous.”
This is because, according to the U.S.-based Nigerians, the idea only exposes “a poor rationalisation in order to deceive the people.”
According to the pro-democracy forum, the need to seek re-election after four years as it is right now, allows the people to assess the performance of Nigerian public office holders and determine if they merit such positions or there is a need for a change.