Reps Reject Bill Proposing 6-Year Term and Zonal Rotation for President, Governors

The House of Representatives rejected a proposed amendment bill to the constitution. This change would have made the president, governors, and local government chairmen serve only one six-year term instead of multiple terms. The bill was introduced by Ikenga Ugochinyere of the PDP from Imo and supported by 33 others.

The bill also suggested dividing the country into six regions and rotating the presidency and governorships among these regions. Another key idea was to have all elections for different offices on the same day, which would be organized by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in consultation with the National Assembly. This would include the President, governors, and members of the National and State Assemblies.

Specifically, the changes would have set up a rotation for the presidential elections between the northern and southern parts of Nigeria every six years. If a president-elect died or could not take office for some reason, the proposed bill said the First Vice President-elect should become president.

Additionally, the bill wanted governors to give a performance report in the middle of their term. If the State House of Assembly thought the governor’s performance was poor, they could start impeachment proceedings.

Despite these ideas, the lawmakers did not let Ugochinyere lead a debate on the bill, which stopped it from moving forward.