Presidential system not working in Nigeria  –  Stakeholders 

Some eminent Nigerians, including former governors, religious leaders, scholars, current and former members of the National Assembly and opinion leaders, youth leaders and students, have agreed that the presidential system of government is not working in Nigeria.

They took the stand during the dialogue convened by the home-grown Parliamentary System Support Group, held at the Shehu Yar’Adua Center, Abuja.

They agreed that the current presidential system was not working and there was need to adopt a homegrown governance system that would take into consideration Nigeria’s peculiarities.

They however said, alternatively, Nigeria should revert to the parliamentary system because of its unique benefits.

The Chairman of the occasion and former Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Professor Ango Abdullahi, said the adoption of the American presidential system of governance was “our first mistake” as a nation.

He argued that the system did not fit into “our history, traditions, or experience.”

Abdullahi said, “Now we have experienced the presidential system for 24 years. With due respect, I think our situation is worse than under the parliamentary system that we truncated after trying it for four, five years.

“One of the things we did wrongly was to bring in a system that did not fit us.”

He said Nigeria “should work on something. It must not necessarily be a typical parliamentary system from our former colonial masters; it could be something else”.

“Definitely, the presidential system did not work for us, and there is a need for us to change to something else.”

Former governor of Osun State and immediate past Minister of Interior, Ogbeni RaufAregbesola, x-rayed the challenges bedeviling Nigeria, and argued  that any system of government that does not entrench accountability would not provide the needed results for the country.

“If you go on believing that a man, no matter how beautiful, no matter how good, could have the capacity to govern 120 million people all alone without checks, we are joking. So, by that consideration alone, I am opposed to executive system of government.

“I believe the collective arrangement which the parliamentary system guarantees is best for a nation like Nigeria if indeed we are committed to advancing the interest of the large population and mass of our people.”

Senator Florence Ita-Giwa said the system has degenerated to a level that one must have a godfather before getting the chance to contest for an elective office.

“You have to address the issue of restoring the dignity of the electoral system, you have to have a system to restore the dignity of the judiciary, you have to have a system where you will not be trampled upon as minorities,” she added.

The guest speaker, Dr Usman Bugaje, noted that the experience of the past 25 years had shown that the presidential democracy had not met the expectations of Nigerians, rather it had deepened poverty, insecurity and engender mind-boggling corruption.

“I like the idea of the homegrown effort. This is a very key word because if you borrow a system that has been nurtured in an entirely different history, social, and cultural environment, it will not work for you.

“You are supposed to work your own system. If we keep borrowing and borrowing and borrowing, we’ll become enslaved by ideas and systems that do not quite fit and solve our own problems. And I thought for this purpose it’s very important that we underscore the significance of this.

“When we come to look at our homegrown system, like I said, we need to broaden the discussion. One, we have to look at this as a process of reinventing our politics because our politics is really sick, is decaying, and citizens are agitating because it has not given them what they are looking for.”

In his message, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, said the agitation for a home-grown parliamentary system was “timely, as it speaks directly to the aspirations of our people for a governance system that reflects our values, priorities, and cultural identity.”

The Speaker, who was represented by former Majority Leader and Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Hon. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa,  said, “A home-grown parliamentary system must not only reflect the procedural aspects of governance but also the intrinsic values, goals, and cultural nuances of the people it serves”.

“It should be a leadership model grounded in substance, not merely in style.”

He however said not withstanding the agitation for a new governance system, “our bicameral system has enabled us to balance representation across regions and ethnic groups, enhancing inclusivity and participation in the democratic process. Any significant structural change must, therefore, be carefully considered within the context of Nigeria’s complexities to avoid unintended consequences.”

Abbas did not also agree with part-time legislators, saying it may underestimate the profound responsibility that legislators bear.

“Our focus should instead be on embedding our legislative values into a homegrown model,” he added.

In his remarks, John Onaiyekan, Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja, said the general concensus from the discussions was that what we have on ground, including the executive, judiciary and legislature, is just not good enough.

“As a religious leader, I look at what is happening now, I am more interested not so much in the structures, I am more interested in the people that are running government and what is it that is moving them when they do things. I will want us to distinguish between the structures and the spirit.”

Onaiyekan said “the best form of government is democracy and we have opted for that. If we have opted for that, then we must do it rightly.”

He also raised two posers: “If our system is running badly, what is the position of the religious communities and leaders in this mess in which we are? Have we been part of the problem or part of the solution?”

Also, former Chairman of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Authority, Dr. Sam Amadi, the advocacy would only succeed if the promoters “embed it in social realism, so that people see it as their project, it becomes part of townhall conversation, religious leaders who are powerful sign on, social actors who are leaders sign on. So in a sense it becomes organic.”

An Islamic scholar from Kano, Dr. Baba Aliyu, in his contribution, said politics has become an industry in Nigeria, making political actors to amass wealth in readiness for vote buying.

Aliyu said it was absurd that Nigerians will spend hours on queue during elections and vote the candidate of their choice, only for the result to be disputed and then a panel of three or five judges decide who comes to power.

A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, said what the country needs are leaders who uphold accountability and hold their subordinates to account.

“What we have is lack of accountability. Any system we will build that will not make the people in power fear the people but the people instead will be afraid of the people in power, is an imperial democracy. It will never work, it will never produce any result.”

Professor Edoba Omoregei (SAN) said Nigeria has made a mess of the presidential system, and canvassed for parliamentary system, because of  accountability.

“The prime minister is accountable, not only to his own political party but also the entire parliament.

There is also a system of transparency under the parliamentary system as the prime minister will have to constantly come to the parliament to defend the policies of his government, unlike the Presidential system where the president can sit back at the government house without speaking to anybody for four years.”