POLITICS
Reps Reject Bill Seeking Six Years Single Tenure for President, Governors
The House of Representatives at the plenary on Thursday rejected a bill, seeking to amend the 1999 constitution to provide for a single term of six years for the Offices of the President, State Governors and Local Government Areas Chairmen.
The bill which was sponsored by Rep Ikenga Ugochinyere (PDP-Imo) and 33 other lawmakers also seeks zonal rotation of presidential and governorship seats, as well as holding of the elections in one day.
The proposed legislation seeks to alter Sections 76, 116, 132, 136, and some others of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
According to the general principles of the bill, “These amendments were to ensure inclusive governance and to curb wastages occasioned by four year periodic elections.
“The bill among others seeks amendment of Section 132 of the Principal Act by inserting a new subsection (2), deleting the extant subsection (4) and renumbering the entire section accordingly to provide that an election to the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be rotated between the North and the South regions of the country every six years.
“Other amendments include, Section 76 of the Principal Act is altered by inserting a new subsection (3) as follows; (3) For the Purposes of Section (1) of this section, all elections into the offices of President, Governors, National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly shall hold simultaneously on the same date to be determined by the Independent National Electoral Commission in consultation with the National Assembly and in accordance with the Electoral Act.
“Section 116 of the Principal Act is amended by inserting a new a subsection (3) as follows; < For the purposes of subsection (1) of this section, all elections into the offices of President, Governors, National Assembly, State Houses of Assembly and Local Government Councils shall be held simultaneously on the same date to be determined by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in consultation with the National Assembly and in accordance with the Electoral Act.
“Section 132 of the Principal Act is amended by inserting a new é subsection (2), deleting the extant subsection (4) and renumbering the entire section accordingly: An election to the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be rotated between the North and the South regions of the Country every six years. Provided that where it is the turn of the North or South to present a candidate for election into the office of President, it shall be rotated among the three geo-political zones that constitute the regions. The extant subsection (2) becomes subsection (3) The extant subsection (3) becomes subsection (4) The extant subsection (4) is hereby deleted The extant subsection (5) remains subsection (5).
“Section 136 of the Principal Act is amended by deleting the extant subsections 1 & 2 and replacing them with new subsections I, 2 and 3 as follows: If a person duly elected as President dies before taking and subscribing the Oath of Allegiance and oath of office. or is for any reason whatsoever unable to be sworn in, the person elected with him as First Vice President shall be sworn in as President and he shall appoint a new First Vice President with the approval by a simple majority of the National Assembly at a joint sitting.
“A person who was sworn in as Governor to complete the term for which another person was elected as Governor shall not be elected to such office for another term. The Principal Act is altered by inserting a new Section 188 immediately after the extant 187 and immediately before the extant 188 and renumbering accordingly as follows; 188(1) Notwithstanding any other provision, the Governor shall present a mid-term account of stewardship performance report to the State House of Assembly at the end of the third year of the six-year term. The State House of Assembly shall determine by a resolution supported by not less than two-third majority of members whether the Governor has by the account of stewardship report justified his continuous stay in office.
Where, upon the consideration of the mid-term report under subsection (1) of this section, the State House of Assembly is not satisfied with the performance of the Governor for the period he has been in office, the State House of Assembly shall pass a vote of no confidence on the Governor. The State House of Assembly shall immediately commence the process for the impeachment of the Governor from office.”
The Bill was put to a voice vote by the Speaker who presided over the plenary session and the nays had it.
By Mike Odiakose, Abuja
Fresh leadership crisis is rocking the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as a former National Deputy Chairman of the party, Nafi’u Bala, has declared himself the new Interim National Chairman of ADC.Bala, who is also a former governorship candidate of the ADC in Gombe State, made the declaration at a press conference held late on Wednesday night in Abuja.
Bala accused the David Mark-led interim leadership of the ADC of hijacking the party through unconstitutional means and warned of impending legal action to challenge what he described as a “total surrender” of the party’s structure to external political actors. “We wish to draw the attention of all members of our great party and Nigerians at large, to the ongoing acts of political hooliganism being perpetrated by some individuals who were hitherto entrusted with the leadership of the party,” Bala said.His declaration comes weeks after a coalition of prominent opposition figures, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate Peter Obi, adopted the ADC as a platform to unseat the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027.The coalition arrangement was formally announced on July 2 by Ralph Nwosu, founder and pioneer chairman of the ADC, who also revealed the resignation of the National Working Committee (NWC) and endorsed an interim leadership led by Mark.But Bala insists the move lacks legal and moral legitimacy.“We are all living witnesses to the show of shame and acts of lawlessness being displayed by these unscrupulous leaders, who, without any qualm or sense of moral restraint, plunged our party into a needless crisis and leadership uncertainty,” Bala declared.He condemned what he called an unprecedented and undemocratic transfer of party leadership to “political strangers,” vowing to defend the party’s constitutional order.“The idea of mortgaging the future of our great party, by abdicating the constitutional duties and responsibilities of all elected officers of the party, to some powerful outsiders who never belong to the party, is condemnable,” he added.Bala described the internal shake-up as a “shoddily rehearsed political melodrama,” saying it would be resisted through both party mechanisms and legal channels.“In case these individuals choose to ignore our urgent calls to obey our constitutional guidelines and thus remain very obdurate and recalcitrant in their aberrant behaviour, we shall proceed with gusto to challenge these gross acts of impunity in the courts and bring them to justice,” he said.Bala emphasized that the party’s constitution clearly outlines the processes for leadership succession and that, in line with those provisions, he was now assuming the position of interim national chairman.He called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to “urgently” recognise him as the legitimate leader of the party.POLITICS
Appointment of Yilwatda, Hounding of Opposition by EFCC Can’t Save Tinubu in 2027 – APC Chieftain
By Mike Odiakose, Abuja
A controversial chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers state, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has declared that the appointment Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda as APC National Chairman and harassment of opposition politicians cannot save President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
He alleged that President Bola Tinubu is having his eyes on electoral fraud in 2027 and the recent appointment of Prof. Yilwatda as National Chairman of the APC has further highlighted this.Chief Eze also noted that the sudden activation of EFCC’s attack mode against perceived political foes is highly condemnable and signposts an administration that is paranoid over the conduct of a credible, free and fair election come 2027 general elections.In a statement released to the media, Eze stated unequivocally that none of what he described as the devious plots being adopted by the Tinubu administration to retain power will come to fruition.“I wish to state that none of these acts, both unleashing the EFCC on opposition politicians and appointment of Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda as the National Chairman of APC, so that he can manipulate INEC, will save Tinubu from relocating back to Lagos come 2027,” Eze said.“The truth is that 2027 general elections are neither between APC and ADC nor any other political party, but emphatically between APC and Nigerians.“With the level of hydra-headed socio-economic and political calamities that have befallen this country due to Tinubu’s inhumane, clueless and anti-people policies, I know Nigerians will do everything humanly possible to free themselves from the circle of deaths occasioned by maladministration.”According to Eze, plans by the Tinubu government to intimidate the immediate Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), out of the coalition movement is an exercise in futility.For Tinubu to go after Malami, one of late President Muhammadu Buhari’s trusted ministers, a few weeks after the burial of the former president, according to Eze, is a sign of ingratitude and obsession to hold on to power by all means without minding whose ox is gored.“Report at my disposal is that Malami will be questioned over at least five suspicious transactions during his time in office as the AGF and Justice Minister,” Eze said.“Five of the transactions under investigation are: The mysterious payment of $496 million to Global Steel Holdings Ltd (GSHL) as settlement for the termination of the Ajaokuta Steel concession nine years after the Indian company had waived all claims for compensation.“His handling of the sale of assets worth billions of naira forfeited to the EFCC by politically exposed persons.“His role in the $419 million judgment debt awarded to consultants who claimed to have facilitated the Paris Club refunds to the states.“The strange agreement to pay Sunrise Power $200 million compensation in its dispute with the FG over the Mambilla power project; and the duplicated legal fees in the transfer of $321 million Abacha loot from Switzerland to Nigeria.”The APC chieftain stated that in as much as he is not against prosecuting public officials who are suspected to have corruptly enriched themselves while in office, making such action selective and targeting politically exposed Nigerians in opposition, to say the least, is unacceptable and stands condemned.“So, Tinubu wants Nigerians to believe and clap for him, that one of the former opposition governors serving presently in his administration as a minister is a saint, and has no skeleton in his cupboard?“I make bold to state categorically that going after Buhari’s minister (Malami) is a deliberate but calculated plot to send warning signals to leading coalition movement politicians that nobody, no matter how highly placed, will be spared by Tinubu in a bid to retain power in 2027,” Eze said.Eze contended that the strategy by sitting presidents to use security agencies like EFCC, DSS, Police, ICPC, etc. to hound opposition politicians prior to elections has become old-fashioned and no longer dreaded because of its selective aura.
By Mike Odiakose, Abuja
A faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State led by Chief Emeka Beke has called on the party’s national leadership to respect and enforce court rulings affirming its status as the legitimate executive committee in the state.Speaking to journalists at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja, the group urged the National Chairman, Prof Nentawe Yilwatda, to recognize and act on a series of binding court judgments that nullified the alleged dissolution of the Beke-led leadership and invalidated the rival faction led by Chief Tony Okocha.
The faction cited Suit No. PHC/3592/CS/2023, filed by the party’s State Secretary, Sam Sam Etetegwung, where the Rivers State High Court presided over by Justice S.H. Aprioku ruled in favor of the Beke-led executive. The court declared the purported dissolution illegal and affirmed that the Emeka Beke executive remains in office until October 2025.“The judgment remains subsisting and binding, having not been set aside by any court of competent jurisdiction,” the faction stated.They also referenced a more recent ruling—Suit No. PHC/3859/CS/2024 (Okwu Joebrown Ndike & Ors. v. APC & Anor.)—in which Justice Obomanu invalidated the election of the Tony Okocha-led committee, further reinforcing the legitimacy of the Beke-led team.Welcoming the decision by the APC National Executive Committee to extend the tenure of all elected state executives until December 2025, the faction noted that the extension aligns with the existing court verdicts.Consequently, the group appealed to the national leadership to suspend the upcoming local government primaries being organized by the rival faction. They declared that the Beke-led executive, as recognized by law, should be authorized to conduct the exercise.“We respectfully urge the national leadership to act in accordance with these valid and binding court judgments to avoid further confusion and division within the party,” He saidReaffirming their loyalty to the APC and its national leadership, the Beke-led faction pledged to support ongoing efforts to strengthen the party in Rivers State and contribute to its success nationwide.
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