By Charles Igbo
Kenneth Eze, the Senator representing Ebonyi Central at the 10th Senate has urged Nigerians to allow President Bola Tinubu to stay in office for 16 years.
Eze, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation, spoke at his country home Ohigbo-Amagu, Ezza South Local Government Area when he addressed Journalists on Monday.
Making a case for a 16-year single term for the President instead of the current two terms of four years each, Senator Eze
called for a nationwide debate on what he has offered. For him,
frequent election cycles undermines policy continuity and stalls national development.
He submitted: “Every four years, we return to campaign mode. By the third year, governance slows as attention shifts to re-election; that is why projects are abandoned, and policies are not allowed to mature.
“Nigeria’s constitution provides for a four-year presidential term, renewable once, but if you ask me, I will advocate one tenure of 16 years. It sounds controversial, but it will allow policies to run their full course and stabilise the system.”
If his opinion carries the. day, he wants the 16-year tenure to begin with President Bola Tinubu.
He, therefore, proposes the scrapping of the two-term structure in preference to a single, extended tenure. This, he said,would “free leaders from electoral pressures and enable them to pursue long-term reforms.”
Critical sectors like power, infrastructure, agriculture and fiscal reform, he said, “require sustained commitment beyond short political cycles.”
In his opinion, irrigation schemes, mechanised farming programmes and energy reforms demand continuity to yield a measurable impact.
Senator Eze was, also in support of President Tinubu’s economic measures, especially, the removal of fuel subsidy, which he described as unavoidable steps to avert fiscal collapse.
His words: ”We were borrowing to pay salaries. That is not sustainable for any country; tough decisions are necessary to secure long-term stability.”
If ever Senator Eze is considered, it means that President Tinubu, a Southerner will be in office till 2039. If power goes back to the North, after the South, the region will be in power till 2055. And that’s before it gets to the South again, probably, the South-east. It is, still, however, the Senator’s opinion.
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