Former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, has advocated the amendment of the 1999 Constitution to reflect a single term rotational presidency.
Ekweremadu made the call yesterday in Lagos while speaking at Nigerian Bar Association, (NBA), Ikeja Branch Law Week 2021 with the theme “The Nigeria of Our Dreams.”
Ekweremadu, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms and Constitutional Amendment, said he had long advocated for a single presidential term of five or six years.
Ekweremadu said that this model had worked for some Latin American democracies in the 1970s when they faced similar challenges of excessive contestation for power.
He said that some Latin American countries adopted the model for a fixed period of time and had since reverted to two presidential terms after their democracies stabilised.
Ekweremadu noted that a region’s access or lack of access to political power affected public attitude and sense of belonging in governance and democracy.
He said that there was nothing to prove that sections of Nigeria that produced presidents or military Heads of State were better off than those that had not.