Monday 19 May 2014
CNPP warns against alleged plot to extend Jonathan’s tenure
CNPP says the alleged plan foretells a
constitutional crisis.
The Conference of Nigerian Political
Parties, CNPP, on Sunday asked the
leadership and members of the National
Conference to stop the alleged plot to use
the conference as a platform to extend the
tenures of President Goodluck Jonathan
and other political office holders.
The group said there was no cogent reason
for the invocation of the Doctrine of
Necessity to elongate the tenure of the
president and other elected officials less
than 12 months to the general elections.
A south-South delegate from Akwa Ibom
State, Okon Osung, had last Friday
proposed tenure extension for Mr.
Jonathan and other public office holders
in a document titled, “Preserve Nigeria’s
democracy: Postpone the 2015 election
now,” which he shared with journalists.
“This calls for the postponement or
deferment of the scheduled 2015 elections
by at least 18 months, while retaining all
the democratic institutions at all levels of
governance and across the entire
spectrum of the country’s political divide,
without any bias to the statutory
termination dates of such democratic
institutions,” Mr. Osung explained.
“Preserve Nigeria’s democracy: Postpone
the 2015 election now.”
“This implies the retention of the
presidency, offices of governors in the
states, the National Assembly (Senate and
House of Representatives), state Houses
of Assembly, local government chairmen,
the Independent National Electoral
Commission and the respective States
Independent Electoral Commissions.
“It is imperatively necessary to speedily
put the proposed politico-administrative
moratorium into effect, and Nigeria would
not be lacking in terms of historical
precedent of having to rise to a difficult
and unforeseen contingency or occasion
for which the country’s constitution had
not made adequate provision.”
The 2005 National Political Reform
Conference, NPRC, was also characterized
by a plan to extend the tenure of former
President Olusegun Obasanjo. The plot
was eventually defeated at the
National Assembly.
“Accordingly, we challenge the chairman
of the Jonathan National Conference,
retired Justice Idris Kutigi to nip it on the
bud; for we are witnesses on how such
Hidden Agenda monsters rear its ugly
head from innocuous quarters, subvert the
good intendment of the national
conference and indeed threaten the
corporate existence of our dear country,”
the CNPP said in a statement by its
spokesperson, Osita Okechukwu.
The group of opposition parties said it had
always maintained that the Conference
convoked by Mr. Jonathan “ill timed, self-
serving, a distraction and diversionary, as
the 2015 general elections more than any
talk shop provides the greatest
referendum to remedy the fault lines
which divide the country.”
It said it was unfortunate that the alleged
hidden agenda was coming at a time when
Nigeria attained the zenith of liberal
democracy, where two political parties
namely the Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, and All Progressives Party, APC,
prevailed in a multi- party system?
It noted that in the 2015 general elections
neither PDP nor APC would win the
presidential election with more than 53%
of the votes or 2/3 of the governors of the
36 states and members of Houses of
Assembly.
The CNPP said it wondered how the 18
month extension advocated by Mr. Osung
would guarantee security, peace and
stabilize the country. It said that the 2015
general elections would be like a
referendum which would provide
Nigerians to either vote for President
Goodluck Jonathan if they were satisfied
with his performance or vote him out if
dissatisfied.
The group stated further, “In other words
what Chief Osung and his masterminds
are saying is that the Nigerian voters
should award 18 months to President
Jonathan and all others instead of
utilizing the time tested provisions of the
1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria to avoid impending
constitutional catastrophe by way of
constitutional crisis or deadlock of
unimaginable proportion.
“We are at a loss where the constitutional
crisis is coming from or is it deliberately
being contrived by Chief Osung and his
cohorts? CNPP says no to Tenure
Elongation of any guise!”
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