…urges homegrown system of government for Nigeria

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi says the presidential system of government operational in the country remains an accidental experiment yet to address the teething challenges of development in the country.

The Ooni of Ife threw his weight behind the clamour by 60 House of Representatives member seeking for the return to the parliamentary system of government in the country.

The Ooni of Ife who showered encomium on the Parliamentarians, expressed the need to create healthy competition among the six geopolitical zones in the bid to effectively harness and unlock the country’s huge natural and human resources.

The Yoruba paramount rulers who described the Presidential system of government noted that it was unfortunate that the mix of parliamentary and presidential systems of government pioneered by late Nnamdi Azikiwe, Pa Obafemi Awolowo and other founding fathers of the country was shortlived due to military incursion in the governance of the country.

Said he: “It’s a mistake of the past that people are saying it’s the northern people that are holding it, they want to. It’s a lie, if the people see data of what is in the north now, I am very very sure they would be the ones that will say let us do that thing now now now.

“Some people call it restructuring, some people called it true federalism, some people call it devolution of powers, all in all na the same thing.

“The white elephant, we don’t want to talk about it, it has gotten to the time unless we want another problem for us in this country. We have gotten to the wall but you have made name for yourselves.

“How you are becoming another pioneer; those leaders were young then. Even youths had chance to rule now, who told you? Are you going to go and kill all of them? Gowon 31 became president, Obasanjo about 41 became president, started giving birth on the throne, Babangida forty-something, they are still alive, go and kill them!

“They are all pioneers, some of them they had pioneers military coups, some of them pioneered this same parliamentary system we talked about, they are in their 80s and 90s, would we go and kill our Elders?

“Now you’re pioneering good thing again, so another coup is coming again, I’m so happy, from the throne of Oduduwa I’m so delighted in what you’re doing. You don’t know the meaning of what you’re doing, pioneer, when you pioneer things, you take the lead of things because we cannot continue to do the same thing from 1966 if you know Nigeria’s history.

“What is in our constitution happened by accident. It was designed just to test why are we having problem in the south west, they are fighting. In the north they’re fighting, in the East fighting, okay let’s do a mix a bit.”

Speaking earlier, Hon. Chinda who expressed concerns over myriad of challenges facing the country, expressed optimism that ongoing consultations would get the buy-in of critical actors in the Nigerian-project.

He said: “If we try the Local Government system and it works, we graduate to the stage, where members from the State Assembly among themselves elect a Governor. If that works, while that is happening we are looking at the faults, the problems, the loopholes and we keep making consequential amendments to our law before we get to the national level.

“So, that’s why we are looking at 2031 for the presidential, then we would have tried the local government, we would have tried the state and then before we come to Presidential. If there’s need and Nigerians think that look, we need to put A, B, C in place, we will have time to do all that.

“But your Majesty, what we have come like I’ve said earlier is to seek your consent seek your blessings, seek your advice and tap from your wealth of knowledge.”

On his part, Hon. Abdulsamad Dasuki expressed optimism that the ongoing consultation, argued that the move towards parliamentary system of government would help to address various concerns raised by all Nigerians.

He said: “Sir, the elections are over. The court cases by God’s grace are over. We all know from all parts of the country, there are complains, things are not the way they should. Some are clamouring for decentralization, some are saying restructure. We as parliamentarians are saying system – parliamentary system of government. I think there’s no better time to put our words into action than now.

“So your Majesty, we are here on behalf of the 60 of us that have started this very important journey, together with you and all Leaders, infact all Nigerians to start the action immediately because we believe something needs to be done to arrest the current situation we are in Nigeria today. And I believe by the time we leave here by God’s grace, it’s going to be action and action to see is through the challenges that are before us.”