Ekweremadu’s Controversial Comment

A political storm is brewing over Deputy Senate President Ike Kweremadu’s recent comment regarding the controversial single-tenure issue. Ekweremadu had suggested “a two-year gap” to prepare the country for the single-tenure system for the president and governors, which he said could be achieved through the “Doctrine of Necessity and some kind of jurisprudential approach.”
The deputy senate president has the right to freely express opinion on any issue, but this opinion of his is to all intents and purposes offensive and inappropriate. The two chambers of the National Assembly, which is leading an ongoing attempt to amend the constitution, had rejected the single-tenure proposal. And it is difficult to see any urgency in the introduction of the single-tenure system to warrant the kind of attention Ekweremadu is drawing to it.

Ekweremadu had been instrumental to the single-tenure recommendation by the Senate committee on constitution review that he headed. Since the proposal has been defeated by the legislature, trying to reawaken it by other means fuels suspicion that he might be pushing the idea for some selfish reasons. Creating such feeling is certainly not healthy for Nigeria at this time.