Senate Says It Will Support Six-Year Single Term For President and Governors Only if Nigerians Approve

The Nigerian Senate has said the National Assembly will only support the call for a single term of six years for the next president and governors if it is the popular wish of Nigerians.

The spokesperson for the Senate, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, stated this on Saturday in Abuja in an interview with journalists.

Last week, 35 members of the House of Representatives under the auspices of Reformed-minded Legislators, brought up the proposal, saying it would help to reduce the cost of governance.

The Senate’s spokesperson, while reacting to the matter, maintained that the federal parliament would play a neutral role.

Adaramodu said: “The Senate has no opinion. The Senate is just a centre to aggregate the opinions of Nigerians.

“So, when they come from towns, villages, hamlets, metropolitan, cosmopolitan regions and states that ‘this is what they want’ and we aggregate it, that’s where the Senate will go.”

Meanwhile, Adaramodu, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, has clarified media reports of a speculated plan by the Senate to input a clause for the seizure of state and local council funds in the New Minimum Wage Bill being proposed by the executive.

Adaramodu in a statement on Saturday, however, dismissed the report as unfounded.

He submitted that it would be wrong to assume that the Senate would take a position on a bill that hasn’t been submitted to it for deliberation.

He said: “Mr. President in his national broadcast on Democracy Day only informed Nigerians that he would soon send the New Minimum Wage Bill to us.

“No one among us, not even the Senate President knows the content of the Bill.

“How can we take a position on a document that we haven’t even sighted?

“During my interface with some journalists, who approached him for an interview as part of activities to mark the first anniversary of the 10th National Assembly, I did not at any point state that the allocations belonging to states and local governments will be seized.

“Nigeria is a federation, with sub-national governments that are autonomous. The misleading headline by the newspaper that allocations belonging to states and local councils will be seized is false and should be disregarded.

Sunday Aborisade

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