President Jonathan's Single-Tenure Proposal Fraudulent, Self-Serving Says Action Congress Of Nigeria -NPO
Posted: July 27, 2011 - 17:54
By http://www.nigeriapoliticsonline.com

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has described as patently fraudulent, deceptively self serving and a terrible misadventure the plan by President Goodluck Jonathan to send a Constitutional amendment bill to the National Assembly to pave the way for a single tenure for the President and the Governors of the 36 states.

In a statement issued in Ibadan by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Wednesday, the party said the plan also confirms fears being expressed in certain circles that this President enjoys power for the sake of it, instead of using it to the benefit of Nigerians.

It said the single tenure project is fraudulent because the President never for once promised Nigerians, during his electioneering campaign, that this will be his priority project once elected into office, adding that the issue is also not known to be in the manifesto of his party, the PDP.

ACN said the project is also self-serving because, despite the deceptive proviso that President Jonathan will not benefit from it, there is nothing in the constitution that bars him from seeking another term of office in 2015 and, in any case, he has not told anyone that he will not run again after his current tenure.

"This is nothing but tenure elongation by subterfuge, and it is worse than the third term misadventure of his Godfather. All it takes for the proviso (inserted to hoodwink gullible people) to be knocked off is for anyone to seek a declarative court ruling that he (President Jonathan) is indeed qualified to seek another term. After all, he did not go that far to disown his party's zoning principle, which he signed on to,'' the party said.

[size=8pt]It also expressed concern that the ill-conceived project could prove to be a divisive issue, further threatening the country's fragile unity, which took some beating by the President's volte-face on the zoning issue.
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ACN said further: "Much as most Nigerians are shocked by President Jonathan's plan, we are sure it did not come to them as a total surprise, because it is in line with his style since assuming office. After the death of President Umaru Yar'Adua and his (President Jonathan's) ascension to office, he cannot be remembered for anything beyond stoking the fire of zoning or no zoning, which burned brightly until he was elected President.

"Now, three months after he promised Nigerians heaven and earth in his inauguration speech but delivered nothing, while Nigerians are daily being subjected to hellish living, all he has come up with is a bill to amend the Constitution so the President and state governors can serve only one term. How is this issue more important than taking measures to grow our moribund economy; or to ensure that millions of our jobless youths are gainfully employed?

"How does this check the widespread insecurity of lives and property in the land, especially in areas under the stranglehold of Boko Haram? How are the so-called merits of the plan, which its promoters said include checking the acrimony that accompanies re-election campaign, more important than making kerosene, diesel and Jet-A1 abundantly available to slash the rising costs? How does this project turn around the appalling state of our infrastructure? And how does it check the spiralling exchange rate of the Naira to the major currencies, with its bandwagon effects?

"By seeking to use this meaningless bill to divert the attention of Nigerians from the issues listed above, while cunningly buying his government enough time to consolidate, President Jonathan has done an incalculable damage to his integrity and disappointed the millions who voted him into office. He should therefore jettison this ill-advised pursuit of tenure elongation through the back door, apologise to Nigerians and face squarely the daunting task of serious governance. If he fails to do so, which is very likely, the National Assembly should not waste time in throwing it away,'' ACN said.

The party said while no one should fall for the deceptive proviso that the single tenure project will not benefit the President, it is indeed irrelevant whether or not it benefits him, since the issue pales into insignificance when placed side by side with matters that should be the priority of any serious administration that is eager to deliver the dividends of democracy to the citizenry.

"We therefore urge all Nigerians to reject this evil project instead of playing the game of President Jonathan and his cohorts, who simply want to use the ensuing debate to divert attention from the worsening standard of living of Nigerians and the bad governance to which they have been subjected by to most elected officials in the over 12 years of democratic rule, it said.

okada_man:

May Amadioha and the Alusis continue to protect and bless ACN and other worthy rascals!

Thunder fire Jonathan and that hin yeye fedora cap! 

Resource control he no do he wan get more years for free, Osanobua gbe e!

okada_man:

@9jaganja you are right actually, but I'm glad they spoke swiflty against this brain dead idea though.

ACN una dey hear 9jaganja so?

One time now una go talk sey Diaspora no like Nigeria. the guy talk sey he spent $2000 to go home and vote

9jaganja, you ride okada when you come lagos? we no se your hand o.

Amadioha punish Jonathan still. .

6 -Year Term:A Diversion from The Real Challenges Confronting Nigerians-CLO

Press Release Wed July 27,2011

The attention of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has been drawn to the new Tenure regime bill being proposed by President Goodluck Jonathan to the National Assembly as part of his administration's contributions to the ongoing endless Constitutional review by the NASS. The CLO is shocked that rather than committing its energies, powers, experience, wisdom and the national resources to very more relevant areas that need urgent redress, Mr. President and his team decide to waste such energies and resources on inanities.

CLO fails to reconcile the promises of good governance through transformative processes that Dr. Jonathan made to Nigerians during his electioneering campaigns with the single term agenda which will not;

.Put food on the tables of Nigerians,

.Resolve the dilapidated educational sector,

.Restore the decayed infrastructural facilities,

.Redress the collapsed transport system,

.Solve the epileptic supply of electricity,

.Address the wastages and corruption in the polity,

.Cause respect for the rights of the citizens, rule of law and due process,

.Rescue the ailing health and housing sector,

.Put smiles on the faces of retired workers, the aged, Nigerians in Diaspora who are treated like animals,

. Or address the high youth unemployment rate causing unrest and civil crisis all over Nigeria.

It is very unfortunate that Mr. President has collapsed all the high hopes of the Nigerian citizens for true transformation of the failing Nigerian state to focusing on the least on the list of the gross problems confronting the state.

We are extremely worried as one of the groups in this country that has sacrificed both human and material resources in restoring democracy to Nigeria to watch with utter dismay, the way and manner our country is being fraudulently mismanaged and visionlessly run.

We are also worried by the way the otiose political class is knowingly pushing the Nigerian peoples to the wall and wish to state that there is a limit to which the politicians can misrule, misuse and misdirect our society and people and take us for granted.

They may think that we are fools but the events in the world, today, may help send sound warnings and signals to them that most of the combatants who confronted and crushed the military dictatorships have not all died or cross-carpeted and that when time comes knocking on our doors, we will re-enact the struggles that pushed the military out of Aso Rock.

C[b]LO, for the sake of our country and people, wishes to use this medium to urge Mr. President to wield the will power and the energy to deal with the serious issues of endemic corruption and plundering of the national resources that have occasioned mass unemployment, infrastructural and social decay, disgrace of our people everywhere in the world, poverty, hunger, mass death and influx of avoidable diseases that devastate our people.
[/b]
May the stitch in time save us nine.





Sgned.

Comrade, Ibuchukwu Ohabuenyi Ezike,



Executive Director, CLO.

okada_man:

@9jaganja you are right actually, but I'm glad they spoke swiflty against this brain dead idea though.

ACN una dey hear 9jaganja so?

One time now una go talk sey Diaspora no like Nigeria. the guy talk sey he spent $2000 to go home and vote

9jaganja, you ride okada when you come lagos? we no se your hand o.

Amadioha punish Jonathan still. .

seanet02:

9ja don't worry ACN will not disappoint you.
We have True Federalism bills we are still going to  sponsor the best Bill in this republic and we still have more .
Abike of ACN was the main Sponsor of the FOI bill during the last legislative session and you will quite accept that it was the Most important bill passed by the last Legislature

Gbawe:

That is the crux of the matter being dealt with here. 9jaganja issues are for another day and another thread. I will indulge him another time and elsewhere but not today because this is not about the performance of the ACN. this , as you identified, is about their swift response to misguided actions that portend grave danger for Nigeria. What matter is that there should be a groundswell of condemnation , from all quarters, against this insane move by GEJ. We should keep our eyes on the ball in Nigeria. It is not when innocent Nigerians are being executed that we begin to lament impotently. forestalling disaster is very important too and everyone should contribute to ensure GEJ does not cause more chaos to add to the woes of an already highly charged and heated polity.

9jaganja:



Make sure you feed me with changes oo, Seriously gbawe, if we are not critical of these guys, they will disgrace us at national level, Hope your faith in them is backed by good evidence of their plans and not just that you are a party loyalist, lol, thanks sir!!!

ekt_bear:

I don't think the idea of 6 year terms is a bad one. But I think that GEJ should be unable to benefit from it. Let the law kick in in 2017, or something.

Eziachi:

If you take away the prospect of re-election by the incumbent, you are cultivating trouble. Just mirror the scenario where the likes of Ohakim, Akala etc where given  a single six years term? Knowing that they are not coming back, you can guess what they will do. Despite their rigging, the fear of re-election keep some sane to some extent.
Jonathan is looking for third term through the back door. How on earth will this bill be his greatest concern at this particular moment with everything going on around him? Its beyond joke, even by Nigerian standard.

Eziachi:

If you take away the prospect of re-election by the incumbent, you are cultivating trouble. Just mirror the scenario where the likes of Ohakim, Akala etc where given a single six years term? Knowing that they are not coming back, you can guess what they will do. Despite their rigging, the fear of re-election keep some sane to some extent.

Rhino.5dm:

^Feed that crap to dogs!.

Kobojunkie:

There are merits to this Bill?? Pray tell . . . what the frell are the merits that running for a second term does not currently address??

ekt_bear:

Hrm. That is a good point. But don't you think that the 4 year cycle tends to leave little time for actually governing? Years 3 and 4, a governor is focusing on getting relected. Year 1, usually nothing happens because he is still learning the job. Kinda see my point? If you are lucky, only 50% of the time a governor is in office is actually spent on anything useful.

What if we could eliminate those latter chunk of time when most governors are unproductive because they are focused on getting re-elected?

Anyway, I'm not saying that the answer is clear-cut. But I don't think the idea is absolutely terrible.

StarBoard:

On the first paragraph,I don't agree with you. . .
Nigerian politiciansare lazy.That point seems to justify why leaders cannot deliver within a single four-year tem.There is no reason why an elected officer cannot hit the ground running from day one if he claims to have had a manifesto/roadmap as to how to administer his entity.[/b]I find that claim rather absurd.
While it may be true because that is what essentially happens in 95% of all cases,it is not an excuse for tenure elongation.Single tenureship,maybe that reason might be justifiable,but I still think the Nigerian politician will not deliver even if you give him 25 years per term,simply because the political elite is bereft of ideas, like the author/sponsor of this bill.

toba:

ATTENTION, The title of this thread on the home page is also misleading. At first i thought it was ACN that was proposing Single term tenure

ACN's Single-Tenure Proposal Is Faudulent & Self-Serving - ACN

Ought to be 'Single-Tenure Proposal Is Faudulent & Self-Serving - ACN'

or 'PDP's Single-Tenure Proposal Is Faudulent & Self-Serving - ACN'

or left as the Poster put it

Gbawe:

Thank you. The point we are missing , that keeps most of us unsophisticated politically, is that every single day we have individuals vying to become politicians (President, Governors, Senators, Reps et al) because they know stupendous wealth awaits them when they succeed. To that end , performance can never [/b]depend on the length of time in office when the DOA factor (dead on arrival ) applies as per how those entering important office have nothing to offer in the first place !!!!

Election violence and 'monetized' politics will never end either because , regardless of tenure length , the attraction to stupendous wealth , [b]that political office represents currently,  will not lessen in future without the dogged, dedicated and resolute use of reform tactics that simply reduce administrative office to one of servant to the people rather than what we have currently .

This is why some of us shouted ourselves hoarse proclaiming that Nigeria needed a brave and reform-minded President who would go about things in the right order. Reforming systems and institution , with total sincerity, will be a far more effective and enduring way to secure the changes we all want. Tenure length, single term, two terms are all the diversionary tactics of those not willing or able to tackle the unavoidable reforms that are directly required to turn our Nation around .