Makinde advocates for six-year single term for presidents, governors.

Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has called for a single six-year term for elected political office holders at all levels of government in Nigeria, rather than the current double term of four years each.

He stated that a single five or six-year term was sufficient for any government to focus on and serve the people while also fulfilling its mandate.

He advocated for a constitutional change to do this.

“I was reminiscing on my career in government. I’ve already spent six years, and due to no fault of anyone’s, we lost the year 2020 due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

“We lost over a year while campaigning all over the place for the second term. People have started to distract us from our future ambitions and other crucial things. As a result, I feel that we can only claim to be serious about governance for roughly five of the eight years.

“That is why I feel that if you remove all these distractions, a single tenure of five or six years is actually enough to focus and do the work that we are trying to do in eight years,” he said when Muslim faithful, including clerics, traditional rulers, and political office holders, paid a visit to his Ikolaba residence shortly after the Eid-el-Kabir prayers, held at the Eid Ground, Agodi, Ibadan, on Friday.

He noted that, while his plan addresses a constitutional issue, it reflects a paradigm that might be beneficial to the country.

“Well, we shouldn’t be afraid to say the truth based on data that is available to us.” This has nothing to do with me. If they tell me to terminate it, so be it.

“So, I’m simply calling our people’s attention to this because it’s a constitutional problem. We should start looking at it. I am aware that it has been brought to the notice of the National Assembly, but, quite honestly, it is a model that should operate in this country,” he stated.

The delegation, led by Deputy Governor Abdulraheem Lawal, included Ibadanland’s Otun Olubadan, Senator Rashidi Ladoja; former deputy governor and Peoples Democratic Party Deputy National Chairman, Taofeek Arapaja; and two other former deputy governors, Hazeem Gbolarumi and Hamid Gbadamosi.

Abass Agboworin, a member of the Ibadan North-East/South-East Federal Constituency, and Alhaji Dawodu Makanjuola, the Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Edo, and Delta States, were also in attendance.

Governor Makinde addressed the delegation, congratulating the Muslim faithful on witnessing the 2025 Eid-el-Kabir and thanking them for their prayers and commitment to the state, as well as their unwavering support for him and his government over the past six years, urging them to continue praying for his administration’s success.Ladoja delivered the Olubadan’s message, calling for increased support for the government and wishing Governor Makinde’s administration more success and successes.

While addressing with reporters following the Eid prayer, Lawal asked the Muslim Ummah to always demonstrate the valuable values of obedience, trust, and sincere devotion to God’s will, which are taught in the Holy Quran.

He complimented the governor for his dedication to the well-being of Oyo State’s workers and inhabitants through timely salary payments and urged further public cooperation to further deliver democracy’s rewards.

While providing specific prayers for Makinde, Oloso prayed for continued success for the administration.

He also thanked the governor on behalf of the state’s Muslim community for his continuous support.Some Nigerians have called for the present tenure of the president and governors of the 36 states to be lowered from two four-year terms to a single six-year term.

In October 2024, Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president and PDP presidential candidate for 2023, advocated a six-year single-term rotational presidency between Nigeria’s southern and northern regions.

In a letter to Deputy Senate President Jibrin Barau, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review, Atiku requested that his idea be examined as part of the National Assembly’s ongoing constitutional amendment process.

He requested that paragraph ‘a’ be added to Section 130(1) of the 1999 Constitution to read, “The office of the President shall rotate among the six geopolitical zones of the Federation on a single term of six years, flowing between the North and South on the same term of six years, respectively.”

He also sought that Section 135(2) be amended to read, “Subject to the provisions of subsection 1, the President shall vacate his office at the expiration of a period of six years commencing from the date when he has been elected to such office before.”

However, in November 2024, the House of Representatives rejected a bill to amend the Constitution to create a single six-year term for the presidency and state governorships.

Ikenga Ugochinyere’s bill intended to recognise Nigeria’s separation into six geopolitical zones and to provide for the rotation of the president, state governor, and chairmen of local government councils.

The bill also sought to make it possible for all elections in the country to be held on a single day.

The majority of lawmakers voted against the bill during its scheduled second reading.

That was not the first time the House would reject a bill seeking a six-year single term for president and governors.

In 2019, John Dyegh from Benue State sponsored the bill, which also failed to progress to the second reading.

The governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, had also backed the calls for single term for elected politicians.

Soludo said, “Sometimes, these conversations about single term might begin to make some sense so that you fix it, whether you say four years or five years, six years, seven years, single term.

“So, you are not thinking about the next election once you finish getting into this. I face that all day in my state. You want to get into this (project), they say, ‘No, wait, you know you have an election’. And I say, ‘No, let’s get it, if we get there, we get there and if we lose, we lose.”