‘How 5th senate stopped tenure elongation’

Group insists merit should determine Buhari’s successor

Abuja school of social and political thought has described the Kenechukwu Nnamani-led fifth senate as one that singlehandedly changed the course of Nigeria’s political history in terms of the plan for tenure elongation, thus, preventing a total hijack of the nation’s constitution by the political class.

At a panel x-raying ‘Tenure Elongation and the Crisis of Democracy in West Africa’ at the weekend in Abuja, the school, led by its Director, Sam Amadi, noted that no democracy was immune to collapse.

It added that the move by the then Presidency to increase the time in office of the President against the provisions of the constitution would have been very injurious to democracy in the country.

Amadi described the Nnamani-led senate as an example of leaders that could attest to the success of democracy; hence taking a reflection of his book, Standing Strong, drives home lessons for new and the current political leadership to draw from.

RELATEDLY, a newly-formed National Interest Forum (NIF) has insisted that merit, rather than resort to parochial sentiments, should be the yardstick to elect whoever will succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2023 poll.

The forum made up of professional bodies, artisans, trade unions, students, farmers and religious bodies across the country argued that it behoves Nigerians to elect a competent leader with the wherewithal to address the multi-faceted challenges in the country.

NIF National Chairman, Alhaji Gambo Lawan, said at the launch of the nationwide town hall meeting in Abuja that agitations by secessionists groups, unemployment and insecurity were challenges that should bother well-meaning Nigerians.