The Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, on Friday called for the amendment of the constitution to allow a single term for political office horders across all levels of the country.
Makinde made this call when he hosted Muslim faithful, traditional ruler and political officers at his Ibadan residence, the state’s capital, after the Eid-el-Kabir prayers.
According to the governor, the constitution should be amended to compel elected political officers to serve just a single term of five or six years.
He noted that a single term is enough to govern and deliver good governance.
Makinde explained that out of the eight-year spell, his administration wasted two years – one due to COVID-19 in 2020 and another campaigning for his second term.
MAKINDE’S SPEECH
“I was just looking at the trajectory for me in government,” he said, as reported by the Punch Newspaper. “I have spent six years already, and due to no fault of anybody, we lost the year 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We lost almost one year, campaigning all over the place for the second tenure. Now, people have started distracting us from what I want to do next and all of that. So, I feel that, effectively, the time we can say we are very serious with governance is just about five out of the eight years.
“That is why I feel that if you remove all these distractions, a single tenure of five or six years is actually enough to focus and do the work that we are trying to do in eight years.”
Makinde has been reported to want to run for the office of the president in 2027 but he insisted that the advocacy for a single term has “nothing to do with me”.
The governor also noted that he is willing to end his tenure in its six years.
Makinde said a single term is a “model that should work for this country.”
