Members of the House of Representatives on Thursday rejected a bill seeking to amend the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (as amended) to limit the tenure of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Governor of State from two terms of 4 years each to a single term of 6 years and also to make the positions rotational.

The bill, which also seeks the conduct of all elections in one day, the conclusion of all pre-election matters before the election, and the resolution of post-election matters before the swearing-in of elected officials, was rejected by the representatives during the plenary session on Thursday when it was put to a voice vote by the speaker of the house, Rt. Honourable Tajudeen Abass, despite passing the first reading.

In June, Honourable Ikenga Ugochinyere and 33 others sponsored a bill in the lower chambers to specifically amend Sections 7, 135, 137, 180, and 182 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to allow for a new system of tenure for elected political officials and a six-year rotation of the presidency between the southern and northern regions.

However, members of the House of Representatives refused to allow the bill’s sponsor to lead the debate and rejected its continuation.

Clause 2 of the bill seeks to amend Section 7 of the Principal Act by inserting a new subsection (5) immediately after the extant subsection 4 and before the extant subsection 5 as follows: “(5) A holder of the office of a Local Government Chairman shall vacate his office at the expiration of a period of six years commencing from the date such holder was elected into office.”

Clause 3 of the bill seeks to amend Section 135 subsections (2), (2A), and (3) of the Principal Act by replacing the word “four” with “six” to read:

“(2) Subject to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section, the President shall vacate his office at the expiration of a period of six (6) years single tenure commencing from the date, when – (a) in the case of a person first elected as President under this Constitution, he took the Oath of Allegiance and the oath of office; and

“(b) in any other case, the person last elected to that office under this Constitution took the oath of allegiance and oath of office or would, but for his death, have taken such oaths.

“(2A) In the determination of the six-year term, where a re-run election has taken place and the person earlier sworn wins the re-run election, the time spent in the office before the date the election was annulled shall be taken into account.

“(3) If the Federation is at war in which the territory of Nigeria is physically involved and the President considers that it is not practicable to hold elections, the National Assembly may by resolution extend six years mentioned in subsection (2) of this section from time to time; but no such extension shall exceed six months at any one time”.