Lawmakers at thr House of Representatives have voted down a bill proposing a single six-year term for the president and state governors.
The bill, sponsored by Honourable Ikenga Ugochinyere, aimed to amend the Nigerian Constitution to facilitate the rotation of leadership among the country’s six geopolitical zones and to synchronize all elections on a single day.
During the second reading, a majority of lawmakers opposed the bill, marking yet another setback for similar proposals in Nigeria’s legislative history. This is not the first time such a bill has been rejected; a similar initiative proposed by John Dyegh in 2019 also failed to advance. Dyegh had argued that extending the term to six years would allow National Assembly members to gain more experience and reduce the costs and violence associated with re-elections.
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Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar previously advocated for constitutional amendments that would establish a six-year term for presidents within each geopolitical zone while also mandating electronic voting and candidate verification by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Additionally, Anambra State Governor Prof. Chukwuma Soludo expressed support for discussions around single-term limits for elected officials, suggesting that such measures could alleviate distractions related to upcoming elections and allow leaders to focus on governance.
“Sometimes, these conversations about single term might begin to make some sense so that you fix it, whether you say four years or five years, six years, seven years, single term. So, you are not thinking about the next election once you finish getting into this. I face that all day in my state. You want to get into this (project), they say, ‘No, wait, you know you have an election’. And I say, ‘No, let’s get it, if we get there, we get there and if we lose, we lose,” Soludo said.
The rejection of this bill highlights ongoing debates about electoral reforms and governance structures in Nigeria, as lawmakers continue to grapple with issues of political stability and electoral integrity.
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