To taper off "acrimony...desperation for power and the overheating of the polity..." at elections period, President Goodluck Jonathan intends to send a bill for constitutional amendments to the National Assembly with intent of rooting for single but longer tenure for the President and state governors. Plausible as the reasons are, there are alternative ways to achieve the President's desire without recourse to constitutional amendment or change of tenure. And some suggestions are as follows:
To taper off "acrimony...desperation for power and the overheating of the polity..." at elections period, President Goodluck Jonathan intends to send a bill for constitutional amendments to the National Assembly with intent of rooting for single but longer tenure for the President and state governors. Plausible as the reasons are, there are alternative ways to achieve the President's desire without recourse to constitutional amendment or change of tenure. And some suggestions are as follows:
• Strong and Incorruptible Electoral Umpire: The April 2011 general elections that gave President Jonathan a fresh mandate corroborate this view. As at then, Jonathan as a candidate was trusted and liked by the electorate and his party was disliked. The electorate therefore was able to separate the wheat from the chaff when they voted for the President in the presidential election and rejected his Party in some other crucial elections especially in many parts of the Southwest and Southeast.
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The electorate also displayed their electoral savvy by trusting a gubernatorial candidate who demonstrated competence in his first four year. In some other areas where the outgoing had been adjudged failure, they became electoral liability to their protégés who lost out at the elections. The simple message is that with honest and credible electoral umpire where people’s votes count, politicians would have to sit tight and perform when they know they can be easily thrown out in their second term bid. Rather than solve the problem, the bill of single term would rather be counterproductive because charlatans who strayed to government houses would only embark on treasury looting once they know they are not coming back.
• Political Arena Should be a Free Market Place of Ideas and Superior Arguments: The essence of this is that the Opposition should be very virile and robust in its argument against the government of the day on policy formulation and implementation, while the government should also regularly marshal strong arguments for its actions and decisions. With such a development, the country and its inhabitants benefit the most. Where such a culture is obtainable, it provides a natural therapy against mayhem during the electioneering period. To further understand this logic, we can use the Court and Litigation system as an example.
The Opposition represents the 'plaintiff' while the government in power stands as the 'defendant' and the electorate represents the Judge. A matter before the Court offers reprieve for both the litigant and the defendant as both parties will not take the laws into their hands until the final determination by the Judge or Judges. Both the government and the Opposition will have their Manifestos, policy direction, position on issues, and performance as their 'briefs'. And in addition, they can either win or lose their case (election) on the technical basis as may be represented by Freudian slips by notable members or spokespersons; scandal bursts and defections of stalwarts with strong electoral values.
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• Virile Security Agencies: All Security Agencies have their briefs as may be enshrined in the constitution. The Police in particular have a major role to play if they are well funded and not made as an appendage of the Executive. If the police are not corrupt and subservient, acrimony and desperation at election period would be considerably tamed. The Judiciary should also be made very independent and well funded in order not to fall to whims of hectoring Executives. Closely related is a virile press that sets agenda and exposes rots in the system without fear of clampdown or intimidation.
One day is crucial in the life of a nation! That much was espoused by the late sage, Chief Gani Fawehinmi in his argument against what he perceived as trivialization of governance as exemplified by Lagos State “One Day Governor” program. If BRF could demonstrate intense capacity in his first two years; If Oshiomole could start turning around Edo State under two years; If Aregbesola could create 20,000 jobs in his first 100 days in office; if Governor Obi could impact positively in Anambra in less than four years; and if Mimiko could implement populist programs in Ondo under four years, then the four year tenure is not the issue, rather it is the incompetence on the part of the office holders or deliberate deceit or both.
On the other hand, a lengthy period could spell doom for the health and wealth of a nation. Obama is almost four years in office now; it has been pretty difficult for him to reconstruct the U.S. economy precipitated by 6 years of misadventure of the administration he succeeded. Would some states in Nigeria not have asked to be annexed by their healthy counterparts if some characters of yesteryear who by accident of history found themselves in government houses have had seven years of straight non-returning mandates?
The truth must be told; some “locusts” really ravaged some states in Nigeria and they were only able to halt for a while for fear of not returning in their second term bid. Some of them who had second term almost sold their mothers and children apart from the plundered resources and heritage of their states as is now being exposed, just in order to satisfy their kleptomania.
If the President embarks on silent revolution by strengthening the above mentioned institutions, his transformation efforts would be achieved without necessarily drawing heat to himself and breeding the grounds to doubt his future good intentions. Bills against hunger, bills proposing health for all, bills for job creation and social security are more important and timely than this suspicious bill that the April 2011 elections seem to have taken care of.
The President must be told the truth that if he does not allow the bill to die a natural death, he may have inadvertently played into the hands of sophists who will make sure the issue haunts him for a long time to come. And if his intention is to tow the path of past leaders who were deluded to perpetuating themselves, it would collapse and bring opprobrium on the integrity of this President whose strongest appeal is his humility. To come to Reuben Abati, no amount of grammar and excessive coinage of words will help his goodwill from ebbing if they persist on this adventure that is doomed from take off.
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