IN
an arrangement that may put a stop to the 2015 ambition of President
Goodluck Jonathan, the Senate Committee on the Review of the
Constitution has recommended non-renewable single six year tenure for
the office of President, Vice-President, governors and their deputies.
The Senate panel’s recommendation also
disqualifies Jonathan and incumbent governors from benefitting from
the new arrangement if the recommendation becomes law.
The PUNCH learnt on Monday that
members of the committee, who held a three-day working retreat which
ended in Lagos on Sunday, arrived at the decision after a heated debate.
A National Assembly member who was privy
to the recommendation confided in one of our correspondents that, “We
thought hard before arriving at this decision. We considered the current
heating up of the polity by those interested in running for office in
2015.
“We also looked at what normally happens each time we are about to enter into an election year.
“If the recommendation scales through, none of the current office holders from the President down will benefit from it.
“It is couched in such a way that if
someone is elected as Vice-President for instance and he becomes
President for the reason of the removal from office of the President,
either through ill health, impeachment or death, he can only serve out
the term of the President even if it is just one month.
“He or she, as the case may be, will be
ineligible to present himself for election as President in subsequent
elections; the same applies to the office of the governor and deputy
governor.”
The source revealed further that the
committee also recommended autonomy for local government administrations
and if the recommendation scales through the legislative process, local
government councils will collect their monthly allocations from the
federation account.
“There is a caveat. Only local
government councils with elected council chairmen and properly
constituted councils will receive such payments,” the source added.
PUNCH
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