On Thursday, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) kicked against the bill seeking a single term of six years for the president and state governors.
According to the student body, such a demand is “anti-democratic” and an attempt to stifle citizens’ choices.
News About Nigeria recalls that last week, 35 members of the House of Representatives proposed a bill seeking a single term of six years for the president and state governors.
The lawmakers also moved that there be a rotation of the presidency among the six geopolitical zones of the country, arguing that the proposition, if implemented, would lead to a reduction in the cost of governance.
In reaction, the student body further threatened to mobilise students across the country in a protest against the bill.
The statement by NANS partly reads, “Yes, democracy thrives on the pedestal of a synergy between the three arms of the government, but when a key arm such as the legislature, proposes bills and peradventure, passes laws that stifle people’s choices or throw spanners at the wheel of the tenets of democracy, then, it is disheartening and must not be allowed. NANS as a non-governmental organisation and the only pressure group that has been agitating for the continued survival and sustainability of our hard-earned democracy from being truncated does not only condemn the proposed bills but calls on Nigerians to move against such step aimed at achieving a selfish agenda by some unscrupulous politicians.
“If the proposed bills are allowed to see the light of day, then, our democracy is in total jeopardy. Any president or governor who realises that he cannot seek a second term in office, may rather busy himself feathering his own neat instead of delivering good governance to the electorate. Expunging the second term from our constitution is synonymous with extinguishing the only power the electorate has to vote out any non-performing president or governor. As a student body in the country, we shall mobilise our members massively against these bills seeking to efface accountability, probity, transparency and responsibility from the elected executives and lawmakers.”
