Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago, of Niger state, has supported a single-term in office for state governors, for good governance.
The Governor, who has spent two years in his first term in office, did not however recommend the duration of the single-term, or the effective year for the take-off.
Bago, who was speaking at the swearing-in of newly appointed Commissioners and new local government council chairmen and their deputies, as well as some permanent secretaries and members of some Boards and Agencies, observed that looking for a second-term in office is a hindrance towards taking some decisive decisions that would move the state forward.
‘There are some steps I ought to have taken to move the state forward but I dare not, because of fear that taking such decisions would affect my victory in 2027. For example, some people who failed examinations and should have been sanctioned one way or the other could not be punished because of second-term ambition.
‘I am an advocate of a single-term for governors. Everything in Niger state is being politicised; and because of this, more decisive actions cannot be taken. There are some people I want to sack, but I cannot. As the Governor, I am preoccupied with the search for a second-term in office; and as a result, governance is suffering – and this is why one term is better to serve; because one would be more focused from the beginning to the end of one-term tenure”, he remarked.
Speaking on the kidnapped students, pupils and teachers of St Mary’s Catholic Primary/ Secondary School, Papiri in Agwara local government area, the governor described the development as strange to the state, and called on all to stand against the evil.
Bago called on those newly sworn-in to key-into his new ‘Niger agenda’ towards moving the state forward in all spheres of life.
