The government has accepted a key recommendation of the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) to extend the tenure of the President and Parliament from four years to five years, Attorney General and Minister for Justice Dr Dominic Ayine has announced.
Presenting the government’s White Paper on the Constitutional Review Committee’s recommendations, Dr Ayine said the proposal is intended to provide administrations with more time to implement and evaluate their policies before returning to the electorate.
“The government has accepted a recommendation to extend the term of office of the president from four years to five years, with the term of Parliament extended to correspond with this,” he said.
According to him, the current four-year electoral cycle leaves governments with insufficient time to deliver on their programmes because the beginning and end of each administration are dominated by transition and election-related activities.
“Our thinking is practical. Under the current four-year cycle, the early months of every administration are consumed by transition matters, and the final year is largely consumed by elections.”
Dr Ayine said a five-year term would create a more realistic timeframe for governance and policy implementation.
“A five-year term provides a more realistic time frame for the formulation, implementation and assessment of government policy.”
The Attorney General also announced that the government had accepted, in principle, the committee’s recommendation to lower the minimum age for presidential candidates, but with a modification.
While the Constitutional Review Committee proposed reducing the eligibility age from the current 40 years to 30 years, the government has opted for a minimum age of 35 years.
“Still under the presidency, the committee recommended that the minimum age of eligibility for election as president be reduced from 40 years, currently in the Constitution, to 30 years. The government has accepted this recommendation in principle, subject to one modification,” he said.
“The minimum age will be 35 years, not 30 years. And of course, the details of this will be fashioned out by the Constitutional Review.”