Second Republic President of the senate, Chief Joseph Wayas, has said that President Goodluck Jonathan is automatically disqualified from the 2015 presidential race, noting that Nigerian constitution does not provide for any president to rule for more than eight years.
Wayas, who spoke on Liberty Radio monitored in Kaduna yesterday, noted that “we have a situation where the incumbent president is now six years in office, he can voluntarily choose to bow out. But, I am not sure whether he will be allowed to exceed the eight years enshrined in the constitution.”
He lamented that foreign countries were relying on corrupt related matters to mock Nigeria.
On the zoning policy, Wayas said “there is still rotation in the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), if there is no zoning in PDP the incumbent president would not have been there. The president is a product of zoning or rotation.”
Asked whether the constitution allows President Jonathan to seek for re-election, Wayas said, “The present constitution is lacking in this.As one of those who wrote the presidential system constitution, what we probably did not taken care of is this situation.
“We could not put into consideration what happens when the president dies too early in office and the position automatically passes to the vice president. And in the same constitution, we said you can’t be more than a two-term president, two terms of eight years.
“But we have a situation where the president is now six years, he can voluntarily choose to bow out. But, I am not sure whether he will be allowed to exit the eight years as enshrined in the constitution. This is where people are not giving a taught to it. If the president contests for another four years that will make the total number of his years in office to 10 years.
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