APATA 125 APATA’S SUNDAY MESSAGE NATIONAL CONFERENCE: CHOOSE A MORE SENSIBLE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT FOR NIGERIA We Nigerians, as nationalities, civil society organizations, and individuals, have submitted to the President’s Advisory Committee on the National Conference countless memoranda detailing the directions which we want our country to go now. But now that the National Conference is meeting, we all need to continue to make our thoughts available to it. It is absolutely crucial that this National Conference should succeed in restructuring our federation properly, in restoring back to the governments that are closer to our lives (our State or Regional and our Local governments) the constitutional and material capabilities for promoting economic development, and for generating prosperity again in various parts of our country. I cannot get rid of the fear that if this National Conference fails to reorder our country, our country may break up altogether. Certainly, we need a Federal Government that can defend our country, represent our country competently in the affairs of the world, and manage the commanding heights of our country’ economy – such as currency, inter-state commerce, our international commerce, management of our interstate transportation, and such things. But it leads to inefficiency and ultimate poverty when we ask our Federal Government to be the provider of electricity to our towns and villages, to provide police protection for us in our remotest localities, to manage business promotion programmes for our youths in our local government areas, etc. The value and blessing of a federation can be ours only when our Federal Government does only the things it should and can do, and our State Governments with Local Governments do most of the things that directly and intimately touch our lives as citizens – and each government is respected in its own sphere. It is because our rulers have been grabbing everything and loading everything onto our Federal Government since 1960, and putting all the money for everything in the hands of the Federal government, that we have become poorer and poorer in Nigeria. It is the reason why our Federal Government has become grossly inefficient and corrupt, and has been insanely spreading inefficiency, corruption and poverty all over our country. But there is one other factor that has been adding to our country’s inefficiency and corruption, and our poverty as citizens – namely, our choice of a presidential system in 1978-9. We Nigerians have now experienced two different systems of government. We started off in 1952 with the British Parliamentary System – of elected parliamentarians who then, on the floor of the parliament, elect the Prime Minister (in the case of the Nigerian House of Representatives), or Premier (in the case of the Regional or State House of Assembly). The Prime Minister or Premier then nominates his ministers for his colleagues in parliament to elect. In this system, a Minister is responsible for the management of his Ministry, the Council of Ministers is jointly responsible for the direction of affairs, and the Chief Executive (Prime Minister or Premier) is just ‘First among Equals’. The Council of Ministers considers and approves the plans and programmes of Ministers, and ensures the place and harmony of each plan or programme in the over-all direction of the government. Each Minister presents and defends his plans and programmes (that have been approved by the Council of Ministers) on the floor of parliament, usually with additional backing by the Prime Minister or Premier. The Prime Minister or Premier, as well as the Ministers, are members of parliament, are responsible for making programmes and plans acceptable to the legislature, and are usually subjected to questioning by the legislators trying to satisfy themselves before giving approval. They are also responsible for presenting the reports of the executive government to the parliament. To ensure success in parliament, the Prime Minister or Premier and his Ministers must keep members of parliament well informed about, and satisfied with, their plans and programmes. On the whole, this is a system characterized by joint responsibilities, systemic accountability, informing and persuading – with built-in capabilities for limiting whims and caprices and corrupt practices. It makes the affairs of government much more open to all of us. But in 1978, under the heavy influence of Military Rulers and of former military rulers who had become politicians, Nigeria’s leading politicians chose the American Presidential System for our country. We did not know the nuances and possible pitfalls of this system at the time; but now we know. For one thing, it makes the political process, with countrywide presidential elections and statewide gubernatorial elections and Senatorial elections, far too expensive. No Nigerian who has taken part as a politician in the system, who has been through its heavy expenses and usually heavy debts, can deny that these enormously expensive elections have been a major factor in the stimulating of corruption in our political life. For another, the system concentrates power and responsibilities too heavily in the hands of the President or Governor. It has had the effect of turning our Presidents and Governors into virtual autocrats, their colleagues in the executive arm of government into mere waiters-on, and our legislators into glorified outsiders. Some Nigerian intellectuals have just completed a joint book in which they have studied from various angles the steadily growing impotence of legislatures, the growing dictatorial tendencies of Presidents and Governors, and the enormous influence of President’s and Governors’ whims and caprices, in our governmental system. The over-all picture is terrible, to say the least. In addition, because Presidents and Governors tend to view their administrations as their exclusive personal mandates, our country has been sustaining heavy financial losses through poorly digested, unreasonably chosen, and inadequately discussed programs and projects. Much public money is also wasted through Presidents’ and Governors’ insistence on showing their personal footmarks on governance, and through thoughtless abandonment of programmes and projects initiated by predecessors. The system has also made the position of President or Governor so eminently desirable for politicians, that the quest for it has become a major stimulus for conflicts, confusion and corruption in our political system. The electoral fight for these positions is always vicious, and as soon as the fight has been won, the effort to recover the heavy financial losses becomes a frontline agenda. Finally, the system has contributed greatly to the destruction of the professional quality of our civil service and bureaucrats. And this has been a major factor in the general decline of the quality of governance in our country. This concentration of power in the hands of Chief Executives has proved culturally difficult for some Nigerian peoples to live happily with. Left to choose their own system of government, there are many Nigerian nationalities that would hardly ever choose the presidential system – peoples (like my own Yoruba nation) who are used, in their history and political traditions, to shared responsibilities, mutual respect, and accountability, among the rulers of society. We must all demand that the National Conference should return Nigeria to the parliamentary system – at the federal center at least. Since each Federating Unit will make its own constitution, each may adopt its own preferred system, but I dare to suggest that we would all fare better with a parliamentary system.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 02:39:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015