ELECTORAL COMMITTEE PROPOSAL ON TENURE EXTENSION IN THE FCT IS IRRATIONAL

The Joint Senate and House of Representatives Committees on the Independent National Electoral Commission and Electoral Matters, has proposed an extension to the tenure of Local Government Chairmen, in the Federal Capital Territory, from three to four years. The chairman of the committee Kabiru Gaya said, “Since the National Assembly legislate on the Federal Capital Territory, we amended the tenure of the local government chairmen within the FCT.

He continually make case for the reason behind thier actions; “We believe that if we leave a chairman to serve for three years, they cannot record any concrete achievement. “They would be undergoing the learning process in their first year and start implementing their own projects in the second year, while they will be preparing for elections in the third year. This means that they have just one year to really work effectively.

“However, if we increase their tenure to four years, they will have two out of the four years to work. That is why we have proposed that the tenure for local government chairmen should be increased to four years. “We are therefore appealing to all the governors to comply with the new provisions because we don’t have the powers over them. We can only appeal to them.”

But the question is why streamline it to the FCT alone, sometimes the motives and reasons behind the decisons of Nigerian law makers and politicians as a whole is never understood, although, there might be reasons for this but it's obvious it might not be concreted enough, if the federal capital territory chairmen are allowed to stay in office for four years, and the rest for three years, the question is what's the motives behind such decisions.

The proposals was in recommended amendments to the Electoral Act, which the committee is prepared to submit before Senators and House of Representatives members for consideration and approval later in the month. Hopefully the recommendation will be put into consideration to further improve government involvements in the grassroots.