Reps move for rotational presidency, six-year single term for president, govs  – Newstrends
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Reps move for rotational presidency, six-year single term for president, govs 

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Reps move for rotational presidency, six-year single term for president, govs 

Some members of the House of Representatives are seeking a constitutional review to provide for the rotation of executive powers among the six geopolitical zones.

Specifically, the lawmakers under the aegis of the Reform Minded Legislators are asking for a single tenure of six years for Nigeria’s President and state governors.

A bill to this effect is currently before the House of Representatives and has passed the first reading.

The federal lawmakers, about 30 of them sponsoring the reform bills, contended that it would lead to reduction in government spending, eliminate wastage, bring about efficiency in governance and national stability.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Monday, Co-sponsor of the reformers bills and member representing Ideato North/South Federal Constituency of Imo State, Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, said the electoral reform bills would be going for a second reading on the floor of the House soon.

He said the bills, if passed into law, would help reduce the cost of governance and campaigns and unite the country.

He also said it would ensure a seamless transition, continuity, uninterrupted development, justice, equity, independence of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and efficient use of state resources.

Ugochinyere said, “We are a group of reform-minded lawmakers committed towards using the instrument of lawmaking to reform Nigeria and our political process, constitutional and electoral reform has been a burning topic in Nigeria since independence from Britain in 1960.”

He added that the arrangement was in line with the realisation that the current political arrangement has some identified distortions, defects and limitations that called for urgent, focused and realistic attention, hence the initiative on political and electoral reform.

Ugochinyere said, “These bills which are 50 in numbers have gone through first reading but today we are starting with public unveiling of about six of them while the remaining will come in the weeks ahead.

“It ranges from governance, economic, security, and justice sector reforms to social bills that will target unifying our nation and ensuring long-lasting peace and national cohesion.”

The lawmakers stressed that they were cognisant of the fact that Nigeria in times past had deliberated on and accepted some of the proposals in the Bills, including the Justice Uwais electoral reforms, the Senator Ken Nnamani electoral reform committee, the Udoji civil service reform reports, the Confab reports, among others.

Against this background, the lawmakers said they are proposing: “Constitutional alteration to provide for the rotation of executive powers among the six geopolitical zones to ensure equal representation and reduce the desperation and tempo of agitation for the creation of states.

“To amend section 3 of the Constitution to provide for the recognition of the division of Nigeria into six geopolitical zones.

“To amend the Constitution to provide for a single tenure of six years for the President and Governors of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The reduction in government spending and wastage, efficiency in governance, and national stability by providing a single term of six years for the President and governors.”

The lawmakers are also proposing a constitutional amendment to create the office of two vice presidents from the southern and northern parts of Nigeria.

They lawmakers said that the first vice president should be a succession vice president, while the second vice president should be a minister in charge of the economy, and both to serve as ministers.

The lawmakers said, “Constitutional amendment to provide that the President and the 1st Vice President shall come from the same part of the country (North or South) and the 1st Vice President shall become President whenever the President becomes incapacitated, i.e., Vice President (Succession), Vice President (Administration and Economy).

“The financial autonomy and accountability of Local Government Councils by prescribing an independent Consolidated Local Government Council Account solely superintendent by Local Councils and prescribing long-term imprisonment for any misuse of Local Government funds.

“To amend section 162(5) of the 1999 Constitution to provide that where a State Government fails to remit to the Local Government Councils within its jurisdiction (or within the State), the amounts standing to the credit of that Local Government in the allocation from the Federation account, such State Government shall not be entitled to receive a future allocation from the federal government.’

On electoral reforms, the lawmakers are proposing bills to amend the relevant sections of the Electoral Act to ensure that all elections — presidential, governorship, National Assembly, state Houses of Assembly, and local governments are held on the same day.

The lawmakers are also proposing amendment to relevant sections of the Electoral Act to provide that no declaration of a winner of an election shall be done by the relevant INEC Officials until such officer has compared the results with the list of accredited voters and ensured that the results to be declared are in tandem with the list of accredited voters and the B-VAS machine or any other electronic device.

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Northern politicians wooing Buhari to unseat Tinubu, says Shehu Sani

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Northern politicians wooing Buhari to unseat Tinubu, says Shehu Sani

 

Senator Shehu Sani has alleged that northern politicians are working hard to woo Muhammadu Buhari in a plot to remove President Bola Tinubu from office ahead of 2027 presidential election.

He said the recent visits by the politicians to ex-President Buhari are part of the calculated moves to unseat Tinubu in the 2027 general election.

Indeed, the ex-senator noted that the northern politicians were interested in resurrecting Buhari’s political charm and fanaticism to mobilise the gullible people in the North for a selfish reason.

Newstrends recalls that many top northern politicians have recently visited Buhari in his Daura home, Katsina State.

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and Aminu Tambuwal, ex-governor of Sokoto, visited Buhari on June 22

About 24 hours after, Nasir el-Rufai, an ex-governor of Kaduna, also visited the former president.

In a statement on Monday, Sani said that though the visits were tagged as “Sallah homage,” they had a political undertone.

“The recent visits by some prominent northern politicians to Daura appear to be the usual Eid homage, but looking deeper and beyond the facade, it’s surreptitiously a new attempt to build a strong northern alliance using ex-President Buhari as a rallying point to challenge and evict President Tinubu’s government in 2027,” the statement read.

He also stated, “It’s a regrouping of Northern political forces for the next general election. A project that will eventually kiss the dust.

“They want to resurrect Buhari’s political charm and fanaticism and mobilise the gullible to another hollow and bewildering end.

“They want to stock up and light up the Arewa sentiment without considering the inferno it would eventually generate.”

Sani noted Buhari, a northerner who served as president for eight years, did not make a significant impact on the nation.

“They had power and wasted it. What do they want to do with it again?”

The former senator said, “A southerner is in power just for one year. It’s too early for the desperate and power-hungry northern elite to start plotting.

“The South never did that to Buhari. Their intended action has the capacity of ruining the democratic process and wrecking the fragile unity of the country when the south is awakened to this reality. Their obsession with power is condemnable.

“Opposition to Tinubu from the point of policies, promises and programs of his administration is a democratic right of any Nigerian.

“People have the right to speak and criticize the government. But attempts to whip up Northern sentiments to achieve their political ends is a dangerous political experiment and expedition at this material time.

“No serious southerner challenged Buhari for eight years. These power-drunk Northern politicians are dragging the region to a new political journey through a land mine.

“The Daura homage of the disgruntled and the obsessed will fail. Our people in the North should reject these faces and their plots.

“They have nothing to offer. From the abandoned Baro Port, Ajaokuta, Lake Chad basin refiling and Mambilla hydropower, they failed.”

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PDP expels former Edo deputy governor, Philip Shaibu

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Comrade Philip Shaibu

PDP expels former Edo deputy governor, Philip Shaibu

Former Edo State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, has been expelled from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Shaibu’s expulsion was announced on Wednesday by the leadership of the Edo chapter of the party.

The national vice chairman (South-South) of the party, Dan Orbih, was also expelled.

The development is contained in a statement issued in Benin by the party’s state publicity secretary, Ogie Vasco.

According to Vasco, Shaibu and Orbih were expelled for anti-party activities, according to PDP.

Vasco said also expelled for the same reason was Omorgie Ihama, a former House of Representatives member, who represented Oredo Federal Constituency.

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He said the decision was taken on Wednesday at a meeting attended by nine members of the state working committee at the party secretariat.

“The SWC has extensively deliberated on the issue and resolved to expel, with immediate effect, Chief Dan Orbih, National Vice Chairman South South.

“It also decided to expel Phillip Shaibu and upheld the expulsion of Ogbeide-Ihama from Ward 2, Oredo Local Government Area,” he said.

Reacting, Orbih told journalists that the body is not empowered to suspend a member of the national working committee or expel anybody without following the provision of the party’s constitution.

“When a group of persons sits down to make pronouncement that are unconstitutional it only showed that they are ignorant of the constitution of the party.

“That is all I have to say about that and nothing more,” Mr Orbih told journalists.

PDP expels former Edo deputy governor, Philip Shaibu

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APC can no longer win elections except through rigging, says ex-party National VC Salihu Lookman

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Former DG of Progressive Governors’ Forum and immediate-past National Vice Chairman, North West, Dr Salihu Lukman

APC can no longer win elections except through rigging, says ex-party National VC Salihu Lookman

Former Director General of Progressive Governors’ Forum PGF and immediate-past National Vice Chairman, North West, of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, Salihu Lukman has ditched the party, saying it has outlived its usefulness and can no longer win elections without rigging.

In a statement, yesterday, Lukman said he found it necessary to write to a few leaders of the party and try to clarify his position regarding the situation both in the party and in the country.

He said: “First, it is a shared concern of most leaders of the party that the situation in the country has deteriorated in the last year since the assumption of office of President Bola Tinubu.

“Given a reality that the party structures have been demobilized and the government is implementing policies that have eroded the value of incomes of citizens, conditions of living are rapidly getting worse by the day. With that, both the APC and the governments it controls are getting more and more unpopular.

“It doesn’t require any investigation, at this rate, there is no way we can win election except through rigging. The popular saying in the country now is that President Tinubu is a one-term President. The hard truth is that the country will be lucky to get to 2027, without witnessing upheavals,” he stated.

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Lukman said given the experiences of Nigerians with both former President Muhammadu Buhari and now President Tinubu, Nigerians must learn the appropriate lessons by ensuring that moving forward, they must prioritise the development of a strong party organisation, which can subordinate the President and all elected representatives under the control of organs of the party.

“Given all this, it is not possible to remain in APC, if at all President Tinubu will allow internal reform in the party to return it to its founding vision, which as it is, is very remote. But my reality now in the party is that my membership has been rendered useless and there is no need for me to continue to impose myself.

“I have, therefore, gone back to the trenches and will try to work with all committed Nigerians, who agree and subscribe to the goal of actively campaigning for the survival and development of democracy in Nigeria. We must grow our democracy to the point whereby elected representatives at all levels are accountable to the party and it is possible for Nigerians represented by various interests to develop strong relationships with political parties and elected governments based on which policies of governments can be made to reflect wider interests of Nigerians.

“Although I pray that God Almighty will touch the heart of President Tinubu to make him recover whatever is left of his democratic credentials, I have lost hope that after one year of planless leadership, not much can be achieved during his tenure.

“It, therefore, behoves on all patriots, democrats and progressives in the country to take up the responsibility of organising and mobilising Nigerians towards rescuing Nigerian democracy. As it is, APC and the government of President Tinubu have been lost to the whirlwind. Just like we campaigned against military rule and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, we must rise to the task of campaigning against the President Asiwaju whirlwind,” he stated.

APC can no longer win elections except through rigging, says ex-party National VC Salihu Lookman

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