Bury tenure extension idea, lawmakers warn Jonathan

Members of the National Assembly
have vowed to resist any ploy by
President Goodluck Jonathan to
extend his tenure by six months on
the pretext of insecurity.
There has been speculation since
the February elections were shifted
that the President is on the verge
of sending a tenure extension
proposal to the National Assembly,
using the insecurity in the North-
East as an excuse.
However, senators and members of
the House of Representatives, in
separate interviews with SUNDAY
PUNCH on Friday, said the President
should bury the rumoured plan.
On Tuesday, the spokesman of the
All Progressives Congress in the
Senate, Senator Femi Ojudu, had
alleged at a forum that Jonathan
had tried to get some members of
the National Assembly to elongate
his tenure, but that he had so far
met a brick wall.
He reportedly spoke in Ibadan, Oyo
State at a social discourse
organised by the Afenifere Renewal
Group, held in honour of a former
Ekiti State governor, Kayode
Fayemi.
He had said, “President Jonathan
has been begging us to allow him
do two more years but the Yoruba
must cry out and also be strategic
in their call for change.
“We are resuming in the next one
week and the President might
likely bring the proposal for the
election to be postponed for the
next six months or one year.”
But in separate interviews with
SUNDAY PUNCH, lawmakers across
political parties called on President
Jonathan to jettison the idea, if
indeed there was such.
APC caucus leader and minority
leader of the House, Mr. Femi
Gbajabiamila, dismissed the
thought of tenure extension as
“baseless and impossible.”
He told one of our correspondents
that the idea of tenure extension
was strange to him since there
were no grounds for it.
“It will not pass; there will be no
support for it. There is no point
wasting time and energy on that
issue,” he said.
The Deputy House Majority Leader,
Mr. Leo Ogor, also argued that,
tenure extension would not get
popular support, and that Jonathan
did not have such a plan.
The lawmaker from Delta State
added, “Mr. President is running a
campaign for his election. What
does he need tenure extension for?
Is he afraid of elections like the APC,
who know they will lose?”
Another lawmaker from Plateau
State, Mr. Bitrus Kaze, said members
would oppose a tenure extension
proposal because the mood of the
nation was not prepared for it.
Kaze said, “The mood in the House
of Representatives and even the
nation right now will not support
tenure extension; it will not fly.”
Similarly, a member of the All
Progressives Grand Alliance from
Imo State, Mr. Eddie Mbadiwe, said
any plan to extend the elections by
six months would be dead on
arrival.
“Nobody will table such a proposal
and even if it comes, it will not
pass. There is no way anybody will
contemplate tenure extension,” he
added.
On his part, the Chairman, Senate
Committee on National Planning,
Senator Barnabas Gemade (APC,
Benue North East ), said, “As a
democrat who has been the
National Chairman of two major
political parties in this country in
the past, I can never support such
an undemocratic arrangement few
weeks to a general election that
we have been preparing for as a
nation for about four years.”
Also, the Chairman, Senate
Committee on Ethics and Privileges,
Senator Ayo Akinyelure, (PDP Ondo
Central) described the alleged
tenure elongation plot as “a fallacy,
cheap blackmail and an
unwarranted allegation to heat up
the polity”
Akinyelure said, “Nobody would
bring such bill to the National
Assembly except if the person is an
enemy of democracy.”
A senator from the South West geo-
political zone told one of our
correspondents in confidence that
the plot was real because there
were moves by some members of
the red chamber to sell the idea to
their colleagues before the current
break.
He said, “I can confirm to you that
the idea of tenure elongation was
sold to some of us before we went
on break.”
Other senators who corroborated
this view, also on conditions of
anonymity, noted the idea might
come up when the chambers
resume on Tuesday.
One of them said, “The real reasons
why the election was shifted by six
weeks was probably to perfect the
tenure elongation saga by using
the National Assembly members
who would resume next week
Tuesday, to execute the plot.”
The senators, however, vowed to
resist any attempt to extend the
tenure of the current
administration beyond the May 29
handover date.
When contacted, the Chairman,
Senate Committee on Information,
Media and Public Affairs, Senator
Eyinnaya Abaribe, said it was not
true that the President planned to
use the Senate to extend his
tenure.
Efforts made to get the reaction of
the Peoples Democratic Party were
not successful. Calls made to its
National Publicity Secretary, Mr.
Olisa Metuh, indicated that his
telephone line was switched off.
Also, the call made to the party’s
Director of Media and Publicity, Mr.
Olisa Metuh did not connect.