WRITTEN BY POLYCARP ONWUBIKO
Opinions across the Nigerian elites say that Nigeria is not only at a turbulent crossroads consequent upon being mired in governance disarticulations and contradictions. One of such Nigerians is Chief Bisi Akande, who suggested recently that Nigeria should revert to parliamentary system of government.
He was of the view that the current presidential system is not only very expensive to run but has not addressed the problems that hinder the expected fast growth and development of the country as envisaged by the founding fathers of Nigeria independence.
Political observers have argued that parliamentary system was not given sufficient time to blossom and bear good fruits as seen in Britain, Canada, France, among others but was truncated by the military juntas and stuck upon by succeeding civilian governments.
Actually, parliamentary system of government berthed what is now being bandied as “True Federalism” because of its inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability. This is against presidential system, which was exuberantly adopted at the eve of military leadership but has been proved too costly, complicated and investing overwhelming powers on the president.
It would be recalled that prior to the 2015 presidential election, all the political parties had restructuring in their manifestos. As far as restructuring the Nigerian federation is concerned, one would say that it is not a magic wand by the protagonists since it simply means to go back from where the country derailed, which was in 1966 military take-over of government.
Political scientists aver that political theories are undergirded by principles which, when violated, would yield devastating consequences; and this is what Nigeria is suffering today as governance dislocations and contradictions.
The National Assembly, having observed the disruptive effects in the development of the country, which the bastardized first republic federalism has done, resorted to tinkering and panel-beating the hurriedly-prepared 1999 constitution to bring about “devolution of powers”, aimed at reducing the behemoth powers and authorities of the federal government.
One would therefore suggest that all the political parties should take full cognizance of the fault-lines that have continued to dog progressive and sustainable growth and development of Nigeria.
Reinventing first republic federalism implies “true federalism” embedded in restructuring the quasi and false federation. Whether it is called restructuring or devolution of powers, it is inevitable that Nigeria must one day come to terms with its misshapen structure and take concrete steps to remake it along the visionary postulations of the country’s founding fathers.
Nigeria must be living in denial to conclude that the current system works and only needs tinkering. Even if there can be no agreement on the prognosis, there can be little doubt that the current structure is not working.
The gross issues in the country should therefore make Nigerians see the need to revert to the first republic federal system of government. These disheartening issues include pervasive and intractable insecurity, herdsmen rampaging havoc and insurgents that are defying containment. Others are separatist tendencies in the south-east, comatose economy with rising unemployment and mindless corruption.
There should however be minor amendments like using the six geopolitical zones as new federating units to launch Nigeria into the template of civilized, industrialized and technologically savvy nation of the worlds.
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