House of Reps to Amend Constitution to Limit Terms of Acting President, Governors

The House of Representatives on Thursday has began consideration of a proposal to amend the 1999 Nigerian constitution to limit the number of times persons who have held offices as acting president and acting governor can subsequently contest for the same offices.

What this implies is that with the amendment vice presidents and deputy governors, after completing their principals’ tenures where the need arises, will no longer serve more than a term in office.

The lawmakers noted that the amendment reflects a strict compliance with the two-term tenure of Office of the President and State Governor.

The bill to amend the constitutional provision is sponsored by Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun, according to The Nation.

The House of Reps member told newsmen that when the bill is passed, the tenure of office of a deceased or impeached president or governor by a successor (acting president or acting governor) would now be counted as part of the subsisting tenure.

The bill may have arisen following the circumstances surrounding the illness and eventual demise of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, whose tenure of almost two years was completed by Acting President Goodluck Jonathan.

After completing Yar’Adua’s tenure, Jonathan went for another four-year term before his defeat while seeking a second term.

The bill provides: “No person who had held Office of President or Governor of a State or acting as president or governor of a state for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected president or governor, shall be elected to the Office of President or Governor of a State more than once”.