A cross-section of Nigerians have rejected insinuations suggesting that President Muhammadu Buhari will contest for a third time in office.
While President Buhari has denied the report linking him to the third term agenda, recent petitions and rallies have called for a constitutional amendment to accommodate a third eligibility for President Buhari.
“If any of the group or the cabal are trying to confuse him or convince him, or infuse it into him that he should do that, I think him buying such an idea is like buying into confusion. Because it is not going to work” Emmanuel, an Abuja resident told RootsTv in an interview.
Another respondent was of the opinion that if the constitution did allow the President to run for a third term in office, his performance and his ‘failed’ promises were enough for Nigerians to reject the move.
Rather than amending the constitution to allow the President to run for a third term in office, other Nigerians suggested the option of a 6-year single term.
‘Buhari’s third term agenda’
Despite several denials by President Muhammadu Buhari that he’ll not be vying for a third term in office, some members of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) have been calling for the amendment of the constitution to allow President Muhammadu Buhari and state governors seek third term in office.
The Organizing Secretary to Buhari during the 2019 presidential election, Charles Enya recently filed a suit before the federal high court in Abakaliki asking the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami as well as the National Assembly to remove constitutional clauses hindering a third term in office.
Barely two months ago, an APC youth group, Movement for the Approval of Buhari’s Third Term also campaigned for the same constitutional amendment.
The presidency reacted then through its media aide saying: “It is important to note that there was a past attempt to change the Constitution to allow for the-then incumbent president (Obasanjo) to stand for a third term. That attempt was wrong, unconstitutional – and rightly rebuffed. No such attempt will happen under this President (Buhari)…..The president intends to serve his full second elected term in office, ending 2023, and then there shall be a general election in which he will not be a candidate. There is not even the faintest possibility that this will change.’‘
While the first controversy for 3rd term for Buhari was loudest, former president Goodluck Jonathan stated that four-year tenure is too short for any president to make a meaningful impact on a country:
“In Nigeria, we just finished the election and some people are already talking about the 2023 election. It is distracting. That is why some people come with the idea of a single tenure; so a president can sit down and plan all his programs for the good of the country.”
The ex-president had, during his tenure, said same and canvassed a six-year single tenure for Nigeria’s president but his call was met with criticisms from opposition parties who alleged that it was an attempt by the ex-president to remain in office beyond his constitutional limit.
How Buhari can get a third term
An elected president can only run for 2 terms of 4 years each as provided for in Section 135 of Nigeria’s 1999 constitution as amended.
Section 137 (1)(b) explicitly prevents President Buhari from seeking a third term “a person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President if he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections”.
For this to be changed to accommodate a third term, Section 9(2) of the same constitution requires that for an amendment, votes of not less than two-thirds majority of all the members of each House of the National Assembly and state house of assembly must be passed. Then a Presidential assent will seal the deal.
This is not the first time
The third term bid was most controversial in 2006 when the Senate rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed then President Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military head of state who was elected in 1999 and re-elected in 2003 to run for a third term in office in 2007.
Although Obasanjo never publicly admitted wanting to extend his rule, he was accused of funding his loyalist to push for it. The former deputy majority leader of the senate Bala Na Allah had accused Obasanjo of trying to bribe him with N50M to support his third term bid.
Also, Chidi Odinkalu and Ayisha Osori both human rights lawyers in their book: Too Good to Die: Third Term and the Myth of the Indispensable Man in Africa, accused the former president of stealing $500 million from the Excess Crude Account, a sovereign saving account funded by the difference in the world oil price and the price upon which the national budget was based to fund amendment the constitution for a third term.
Under the fourth alteration NO 16 Act, 2017, the 8th senate moved to restrict a person who was sworn-in as President or Governor to complete the term of the elected President from contesting for the same office for more than one term.
President Buhari assented the bill in 2018 addressing the situation which came up when former Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, took over as President from the late President Yar’adua and sought to re-contest the office of President.
Since Nigeria’s transition to democracy in 1999, Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and current President Muhammadu Buhari have been the presidents to win re-elections and served for two terms in office. Both have also had controversies of a constitutional amendment for a third term bid trailing them.
President Buhari has however revealed that he has no intention to seek a re-run after 2023. “…Besides age, I am not going to contest for the third term because I will go by the Constitution. The Constitution says two-terms. I’m going, to be frank here because I won’t be needing anybody’s vote,”
In 2011, Buhari was reported to have said he would only contest for one term due to his old age. He finally got victory in 2015.
In 2018, ahead of the 2019 elections, the presidency explained away his earlier position and insisted that “people” are calling on him to run for a second term. He won the 2019 general elections and before the year is over, “people” have again started moving a third term agenda for him. Buhari will be 79 in 2023.
