Six-year single term would have ended culture rigging – Atiku

Mr. Atiku Abubakar former Vice President of Nigeria, has said that six-year single term would have ended rigging culture which according to him ‘subverts the will of the people.’

He said that eight-year term of office rewards incompetence because even incumbents that have failed would use their access to public funds to return to power by fair or foul means.

Atiku reacting the rejection of the six-year single term proposal by the House of Representatives said, “in view of the challenges facing our current democratic order, especially the culture of rigging that subverts the will of the people, six-year single term would have ended such untoward practices in our electoral process.”

He also said that “the desperation for second term by the incumbents is the main reason why they go for broke and set the rule book on fire, thereby making free and fair elections impossible by legitimizing rigging at the expense of their challengers that have no access to public funds.”

“A situation where the incumbents deploy more public resources to their second term projects than using the funds for people’s welfare encourages massive rigging that undermines electoral integrity.”

“Six-year single term would remove such desperation and enable the incumbents concentrate on the job for which they were elected in the first place.”

He lamented that: “eight-year term of office rewards incompetence because even incumbents that have failed would use their access to public funds to return to power by fair or foul means.”

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“I don’t agree with the logic that eight years would give elected leaders better opportunity to fulfil their campaign promises. An inherently incompetent incumbent will perform below average even if you give him/her 20 years in office or give him or her $20 billion dollars”, Atiku stressed.

“Second term obsession rewards incompetence by allowing failed incumbents to be reelected regardless of their performance record. It also denies political parties the opportunity to replace failed incumbents with better candidates within the parties in the name of right of first refusal”.