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A former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has criticised the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, and a former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, for making promises to serve for only one term if elected Nigeria’s president in 2027.
Mr El-Rufai spoke on Sunday night when he appeared as a guest on Sunday Politics, a programme on Channels TV.
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One-term promise
The LP candidate, who served as governor of Anambra State from 2006 to 2014, recently pledged to serve for a four-year tenure if he gets the presidential ticket of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and is elected the country’s president in 2027.
Mr Amaechi, on his part, also pledged to serve for a term if he secures the presidential ticket of the ADC and becomes the president.
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In Nigeria, elected presidents are constitutionally entitled to a four-year tenure and are also qualified to seek reelection for a second and final term.
Messrs Amaechi and Obi’s statements are believed to be efforts to get the endorsement of the ADC and stick to an undocumented rotational presidency agreement among political elites that ensures that power rotates between northern and southern Nigeria every eight years.
President Bola Tinubu, a Southerner, would have spent four years in office by 2027, and the ADC seeks to ensure he does not get a second term in office.
‘No one believes you’
But speaking during the TV programme, Mr El-Rufai, a member of the ADC, argued that Messrs Obi and Amaechi should stop making promises to serve for a single term because “no one believes” them.
“Now, on the question of people coming out and saying, ‘I will do one term’, I don’t think anyone believes that,” Mr El-Rufai said.
“I don’t think it is right. You should not constitutionally give up what is yours. And frankly, as someone who has been governor for eight years, and (Rotimi) Amaechi and Peter Obi have both been governors, they know the time it takes to make meaningful change in government. Four years is not enough,” he added.
“So, I want to appeal to everyone to stop making these commitments of ‘I will do four years’ or ‘I will do eight years’, because nobody believes you.”
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ADC coalition
Like Messrs Obi and Amaechi, Mr El-Rufai is a member of the opposition coalition that adopted the ADC as its platform for the 2027 general election.
The opposition coalition is seeking to unseat President Tinubu in the forthcoming election.
Unlike Messrs Obi and Amaechi, Mr El-Rufai has yet to declare his interest in the ADC presidential ticket for the next election.
However, there are indications that the former Kaduna State governor will join the race for the party’s ticket ahead of the 2027 poll.
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