6-year single term will curb wastes, ensure more devt — Kalu

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.