Many people are beginning to hold my penchant calls for a return to the parliamentary system with disdain. To them, it is difficult to see how the multidimensional challenges we face could be solved within a parliamentary system. Some insisted that the coup of 1966 signalled the failure of parliamentary system. I will continue to insist that the presidential system has divided more than it has united us. For as long as we are compelled to vote for a national leader in a nationless country and by ignorant and gullible voters, the unity we so much desire will continue to elude us. The parliamentary system is better suited to us as a country. However certain flaws in the practice of the first republic need to be corrected. For instance, do you know that Sardauna, Tafawa Balewa, Awolowo and even Zik were never elected by their people? They merely occupy the seats and position by virtue of their leadership position in their party. To make matter worse, the prime minister was single handedly appointed by Sardauna who was the premier of the Northern Region, we therefore had a prime minister who held allegiance and loyalty to the premier of a section. Those were some of the inherent contradiction that led to the collapse of the first Republic. Again why did the politicians opt for a Republic, when we were endowed with rich traditional authourities? Could it be because the benefitting politicians were averse to the recognition of the traditional authourities under the colonial masters? Check it out our ealiest educated elites were the rejected ones!!! Nigerians cannot stand on a common ground to elect a leader. Check it out, in 1979, it was only the North that voted Alhaji Shehu Shagari, he was never accepted in the South. Rigging machinery was put in place to give him legitimacy over the rest of the country in 1983. We never came out successfully from that experience. 1993 would have been a watershed, however, the opposition that culminated in the annulment of that rare feat, came from a section. In 1999, even though the presidency was ceded to the south west by consensus, it was apparent that the final choice was regionalized. Obj would not have emerged the president of this country if the Yorubas, who knew the candidates better, were to have been allowed to bring their choice. Today, the shout of war is becoming louder and louder, the demise of Nigeria is looming as a real possibility simply because we are being forced to elect a national leader. Criminals have taken over the political space, because contesting for presidents/governors require billions which can only be financed by corruption. Our elected executives hold allegiance to the sponsors of the campaigns. The elected representatives are more afraid of the godfathers. Nigerians are daily being fed with bitter policies because those controlling the government (ministers and advisers) do not have the mandate of the people and are therefore not bothered about next elections. The idea of checks and balances has been subsumed under sharing mentality. Members of the assemblies are lumped into committees irrespective of party affiliations; they carry out oversight functions together and agreed on the sharing ratio of returns from such function. In the parliamentary system I crave, members of the parliament must be elected by their people from their constituencies. The parliament must be allowed to elect their leaders from among themselves. The person elected as the leader from the party with majority member becomes the prime minister; he should pick all his cabinet members from his party members in the House. The other party(ies) should also pick their leaders and form shadow government. That way, the government and the shadow government would continuously engage the people about their policies and alternative policies. The Malaysians have successfully practice something like this and it is working for them!!!
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 11:00:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015