Abia North senator, Orji Uzor Kalu has again expressed his support for a single term of six years for presidents and state governors, saying such an arrangement would reduce the cost of governance while also fostering rapid development.
Noting that the current system of two tenures of four years
each is expensive and usually distracts elected officials from concentrating on
governance, the former Abia governor also spoke on the emoluments of senators,
which he said was not enough to fund their activities.
Kalu spoke on Thursday evening on a Channels Television
programme, ‘Politics Today’, monitored in Abuja.
He said; “When I was governor, I called for a single term of
six years. Remember, President Obasanjo said I was after him. That was part of
the beginning of our quarrel. I advocated for that because of the cost of going
for re-election, because of managing the economy. Because when you become a
governor or a president, their eyes are on re-election.
They are not even thinking about what people will do or what
people will get. Every politician is looking for re-election. So, the only way
to solve this problem is by giving no incentive to anybody, doing one term of
six years. It will go a long way in boosting performance because most of people
think they need to make money for re-election.
In my minority opinion – I don’t know the majority opinion –
I think most politicians are looking forward to the next election”.
Kalu advised the government to scale down on unnecessary
expenditures, including aid given to other countries and regional institutions
‘N14m monthly for everything’
The senator who took exceptions to accusations that the
Godswill Akpabio-led Senate was simply a rubber-stamp for the Executive, also
dismissed allegations of bogus remuneration and vehicles for senators.
“I am in the Senate and a lot of things are said about the
Senators and I sit there quietly and watch and most of these things are not
true. Some senators were given aid to buy vehicles and those who could afford
it upgraded them. I didn’t get a vehicle. There is nothing like official
vehicles. They buy vehicles for the committees. We are elected, yet we don’t
have vehicles but you have someone who is appointed and he moves in a convoy of
six vehicles.
“We are doing a lot because in our constituencies if
somebody is sick, they will come to us, if somebody’s child cannot go to
school, they will come to us for school fees. So, the way we look down on
legislators is something I cannot believe. As a senator, I earn N14 million
monthly and it covers everything. That is, my salary, my overhead, the workers’
salaries, everything. From this money, I have to buy fuel to move to my
constituency, I have to maintain my constituency offices, I have to sit in the
constituency etc. It is not enough”.
On whether he was proud of what his party, the All
Progressives Congress APC was delivering to Nigerians today, he said! “yes and
no because my party is very unlucky. My party has done very well in the things
they can do in the indices of the economy. The government is not continuing
from where Buhari stopped. That is where the difficulty comes in.
They are trying to reform the economy. They are trying to
bring back the economy to where it is supposed to be but it is bringing
hardship to our people. The president himself knows that Nigerians are
suffering. The president knows that Nigerians are hungry. The president knows.
He is a street person. He knows the streets very well. The president, some
nights, uses his car to go around in Abuja to know what is happening. He is not
a president that is locked up in a room”.
He also denied reports of a rift between him and President
Tinubu as well as alleged moves to impeach the Senate President, Godswill
Akpabio, saying there were no such plans.
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