Nigeria should adopt South Korea’s 5-year single term presidency - Obi

The 2027 presidential aspirant, Peter Obi, has proposed a single five-year term for the office of the President of Nigeria.

The former Labour Party presidential candidate disclosed this when he paid a courtesy visit to the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, at the government house, Bauchi, on Friday, August 8, 2025.

Obi argued that limiting the presidency to five years and a single term will enable the occupier to know that they have a job to do within the limited time available.

He stated that, if given the opportunity, he would scrap the current four-year term system with a possible re-election and adopt the South Korean practice of not allowing the president to seek re-election after a single five-year term.

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"If I have the opportunity, we should stop having a second tenure for presidents. It should be five years,” the former two-term Anambra Governor said.

“That is what is in South Korea, so people come in and know that they have a job to do,” he added.

Obi said the practice of governing for one year and using the remaining years in office to plan for re-election should stop, noting that “What people do now is to be president for one year and use the rest of the year thinking about the next tenure. Let’s stop it, let’s face the real job.”

The Labour Party chieftain's latest comments followed his recent vows that he's willing to serve only a single four-year term if elected the President of Nigeria in 2027.

On August 3, 2025, Obi reiterated the pledge he first made during a well-attended X Space session tagged #PeterObiOnParallelFacts, which drew thousands of live listeners in June.

However, his proposition sparked criticism and skepticism, with many Nigerians questioning his sincerity, not less from the incumbent Anambra Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo.

This prompted Obi to reaffirm that his commitment to serving only one term remains sacrosanct.

“In my political life, my word is my bond…My vow to serve only one term of four years is a solemn commitment, rooted in my conviction that purposeful, transparent leadership does not require an eternity,” he stated.

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Citing Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Nelson Mandela as examples, Obi argued that history has shown that leaders can make transformative impacts within a single term in office.

He further argued that historically, the longer African leaders hold on to power, the more likely they are to be corrupted by it.