At the 115th inaugural lecture of Lagos State University (LASU), held Tuesday at the Buba Marwa Auditorium, a senior scholar didn’t mince words: Nigeria’s two-term, four-year system is broken — and a radical fix is overdue.
Adewunmi Falode, Professor of International Relations and Strategic Studies, urged a constitutional overhaul to allow a
single, non-renewable seven-year term for elected public office holders.
Falode’s argument is simple and brutal: the current rush of elections, re-elections, litigation, and constant campaigning leaves little room for real governance.
“What we have now is wasteful, unstable, combustible,” he said — and the evidence is right there in the numbers.
From 1999 to the 2023 general elections, the cost of balloting has ballooned, with one independent tally putting Nigeria’s total spend at nearly ₦1 trillion across just seven national polls.
Why Seven Years — Not Four
Falode says the four-year, renewable-once formula is a trap. By his calculation,
elected officials barely enjoy five months of uninterrupted governance
before they are dragged into petition tribunals and pre-campaign maneuvers.
The result? Leadership that is reactive, shallow, and designed for survival — not development.
A single seven-year term, he said, gives political leaders about
four years of real stability to work,
with the remaining three years serving as a buffer for election petitions and campaign activities.
He cited Mexico and the Philippines — both operating single-term systems — as functional examples.
Nigeria’s Democracy: A Billion-Naira Money Pit
Falode did not spare Nigeria’s political class or its expensive democratic machinery.
He described the system as “elitist, exclusionary, divisive,” pointing to the massive spending on elections —
a cycle of waste that produces few results and ends with the judiciary adjusting electoral outcomes after the fact.
He recalled that the 2015 elections cost the nation about ₦108.8 billion (INEC figure), while the 2023 elections
swelled to over ₦355 billion. Heavy spending, human casualties, destroyed businesses — and still, many outcomes
end up contested in court. For Falode, this is clear evidence that the system is inefficient and unsustainable.
Beyond Term Limits: Time to Rethink Federalism
But Falode didn’t stop at term limits. He insisted that Nigeria must
customise its federal structure — what he calls “competitive federalism.”
This model places less power at the centre and strengthens the states without slipping into regionalism.
He emphasized that Nigeria’s early constitutional conferences had already laid out frameworks for unity, equity,
and shared development — the only thing missing is political will.
According to him, the federal constitution is still the best tool to fix Nigeria’s long-standing fractures,
if only leaders would implement its original intent.
Education: The Keystone Nigeria Keeps Ignoring
On the rising tide of ethnic and religious agitation, Falode was blunt:
education is Nigeria’s greatest weapon — and the one it has failed to deploy fully.
He argued that compulsory education up to secondary level would produce citizens less vulnerable to extremism and manipulation.
He referenced China’s model: a large, diverse nation with multiple ethnicities and religions, yet remarkably stable due to
a unified language strategy and a domesticated educational system that promotes literacy, identity, and productivity.
Nigeria, he said, must craft its own version of this — not copy it blindly.
Why This Matters Now
Nigeria’s governance is limping under the weight of rising election costs, constant court battles,
fragile political legitimacy, and public disillusionment.
Falode’s proposed seven-year single term isn’t just a policy idea — it may soon be a survival strategy.
With over ₦355 billion spent on the 2023 elections alone, and more to come in future cycles,
the current system is economically unsustainable and administratively disruptive.
If Nigeria wants functional leadership, long-term planning, and accountable governance,
it must stop recycling electoral chaos every four years.
The real question now is this:
Does Nigeria have the courage to rewrite its constitution — and finally prioritise governance over politics?