AS the debate over the planned single term for the President and state governors rages, the Chairman of the Enugu, Anambra, and Ebonyi states' chapter of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) Dr. Chike Obidigbo, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, and others have asked President Goodluck Jonathan to focus on the economy and not disappoint Nigerians.
Obidigbo said venturing into matters such as tenure elongation at this early stage could distract the President with unbearable effects on the economy and most Nigerians.
In a statement made available to The Guardian in Abakaliki, Obidigbo said the popular thinking among Nigerians now remains that the presence of technocrats in the present federal cabinet would spur the President to greater heights, especially towards the provision of infrastructure and social amenities as well as boosting the industrial base of the country.
He wondered why the President should venture into another round of arguments over the term limits for the President and state governors, insisting that whether he would benefit or not is immaterial at this time.
"What is his business with term limit? Is that part of the reason most Nigerians trooped out en masse to vote for him on April 16? I hope Mr. President is not about to disappoint us so soon? The proposed bill is not only ill-timed, it is ill-advised," the MAN chief said.
He enjoined the government to fashion out appropriate measures to cushioning the effect of increasing cost of domestic items such as kerosene, adding that escalating prices of basic food items could trigger social upheavals if unaddressed.
To Umeh, the proposed single tenure bill would be opposed by APGA.
Umeh told journalists in Umuahia at the weekend that though the President might have good intention for proposing the bill, the arrangement would not make those elected under it to be accountable to the people.
The APGA leader, who was in Umuahia to attend a priesthood ordination at the Mater Dei Catholic Cathedral, said: "The President may have good intention for proposing this Bill but a critical analysis of the implications of passing this bill is that the President and governors will now be elected for six-year single tenure. So, it is very dangerous because from the blast of the whistle, they may decide to abandon the electorate and there is nothing that you can do to them in view of the immunity clause in our constitution, it means that it will be very difficult to remove them from office when they are going wrong."
Also, a presidential aspirant in the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC), Dr. Joe Nwodo, said in Lagos at the weekend that the debate on tenure elongation is a sheer waste of time.
He said the argument for and against the number of years in office was misplaced, as the basis of remaining in office should be premised on performance.
Nwodo said: "The question is not the number of years, but of what has been achieved. Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos stayed for four years and he took the country unawares. It is a question of how well, so we should not waste our time on the number of years."
Meanwhile, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), has set up a campaign team to enlist the support of other Nigerians against the proposed tenure elongation.
At a press conference in Enugu yesterday, CNPP said there was need to stop Jonathan on his tenure elongation proposal, expressing fears that Nigeria's number one citizen may be heading for dictatorship.
CNPP said that this became necessary after a careful assessment of the body language, mannerisms and antecedents of the President, saying the body had come to the inevitable conclusion that he might emerge as a dictator in the mould of African "big men" such as Paul Biya of Cameroun and Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, if not called to order.
The group's National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, alleged that the President had never kept any of his promises to Nigerians, stressing that a cursory assessment showed that "big men" in their route to power look humble, honest, and un-ambitious, until they get to the zenith of power.
The Guardian