Six-year single term: Lawmakers threw away baby with bath water – Atiku

A former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has said members of the House of Representatives have thrown away a baby together with the bath water.

Atiku, a former presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said in a statement by his Special Advise on Media, Paul Ibe, that he was displeased with the speed with which the six-year single term proposal for president and governors was rejected by the House of Representatives.

“I am disappointed by the fact that the lawmakers have thrown away the baby with the bath water at the expense of the larger interest of the country,” he said.

“In view of the challenges facing our current democratic order, especially the culture of rigging that subverts the will of the people, six-year single term would have ended such untoward practices in our electoral process ” Atiku added.

The former vice president said “the desperation for second term by the incumbents is the main reason why they go for broke and set the rule book on fire, thereby making free and fair elections impossible by legitimizing rigging at the expense of their challengers that have no access to public funds.

“A situation where the incumbents deploy more public resources to their second term projects than using the funds for people’s welfare encourages massive rigging that undermines electoral integrity.

“Six-year single term would remove such desperation and enable the incumbents concentrate on the job for which they were elected in the first place.

“Eight-year term of office rewards incompetence because even incumbents that have failed would use their access to public funds to return to power by fair or foul means.

“I don’t agree with the logic that eight years would give elected leaders better opportunity to fulfill their campaign promises. An inherently incompetent incumbent will perform below average even if you give him/her 20 years in office or give him or her $20 billion dollars.”