Babalola advocates six-year single term for president

Ibadan-based legal luminary, Aare Afe Babalola, has urged
the President-elect, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to
seriously consider a further amendment of the 1999
Constitution, once he assumes office on May 29.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria wants Buhari to facilitate an
amendment of the Constitution to better unite the country
and particularly to create a single term of six years for the
President.
Babalola, in his letter to Buhari dated April 1, 2015, argued
that the current four-year term does not allow the President
enough time to work for the nation.
According to him, any newly-elected President on
assumption of office spends the first year to settle down,
works for only two years and spends the last of the four
years campaigning for his second term or re-election.
The letter read in part, “I suggest that there is urgent need
to restructure the country’s constitution and reform it to
ensure that Nigeria emerges as a nation united, where a
leader will emerge through votes cast during election not
based on religious or ethnic affiliations. These problems, in
my humble view, are what you should quickly address when
you assume power come May 29, 2015.
“And this brings me to the age-long advocacy of a single six-
year term for the country’s President, which would have
allowed him to work harder and achieve more instead of the
present four-year term, which allows him only two years of
serious work as he will spend the first year to settle down
and use the last of the four years to campaign for his second
term.”
While congratulating Buhari on his victory at the last
Saturday poll, Babalola also noted and reminded the
President-elect of the uniqueness of the political campaigns
preceeding the election, where the two major parties were
united in their view that various sectors of the country, such
as education, power, security among others, were in dire
need of restructuring.
He, however, urged Buhari not to abandon, but to
consolidate on the foundation that the present
administration of President Goodluck Jonathan had laid
down.
The letter further read, “As a statesman, you should be ready
to build on the foundation laid by Dr. Jonathan’s
administration to the advantage of Nigerians. This is the
more so in a country like Nigeria where people find it
difficult to distinguish between politics and governance, a
development which often makes people taking over the
reins of government from their predecessor to always
abandon the projects of the predecessors and start their
own, particularly when such predecessors are not from the
same party with the helmsman.”
In similar vein, Babalola, in a separate letter to President
Goodluck Jonathan, described Jonathan as “the hero of this
presidential election.”
Babalola noted that apart from Ibrahim Kwankwanso of
Kano State and the immediate past Governor of Ekiti State,
Kayode Fayemi, Jonathan was the only other leader who had
demonstrated the courage to concede defeat and
congratulate the winner after an election.
According to Babalola, Jonathan had through this gesture,
exemplified himself a man of honour.
Babalola, however, urged Jonathan to reflect on the factors
responsible for his loss, an exercise he said would come in
handy to him in his future endeavours.

Posted from 112world