Nigeria president proposes limiting politicians to 1 term in office, extending term length

Nigeria’s president is proposing limiting the president and governors to one term.

A spokesman for President Goodluck Jonathan says the term would be extended from the current four. Reuben Abati said Tuesday the president is “concerned about the acrimony which the issue of re-election every four years generates.” He says elections are also becoming too expensive to hold every four years.

Abati says legislators should also have longer terms but can serve multiple terms. The National Assembly will vote on the measure, which he says will take effect in 2015.

Jonathan was elected to his first full term in April after he took the post after the former president’s (Umaru Musa Yar’Adua) death. Postelection rioting and reprisal attacks left at least 500 people dead and forced 40,000 to flee their homes across the country’s north.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.