Human rights activist and constitutional lawyer, Prof. Mike Ozekhome (SAN) says the current presidential system of government being practiced in Nigeria is too wasteful and has greatly depleted the lean resources of the country.
Ozekhome who spoke in an interview with TheScrutinyNG said there are many lessons Nigeria must learn from the just concluded elections in the United Kingdom (UK).
According to him, unlike the presidential election in Nigeria where it’s usually a do or die affair, the UK elections went on peacefully without any thuggery, killings or court cases owing largely to its parliamentary system.
“We have plenty lessons to learn from the just concluded UK elections. Elections went on in the UK, my daughter who is a medical doctor there said nobody even knew election was going on. Everybody went about his or her business quietly as if nothing was going on”.
“Parliamentary system of government ensures that things are done in such an orderly manner. It is not the presidential system that people kill themselves over. It is not a situation where the president must win all the elections and get two thirds of the states. When there are 36 states, the President must have 25 percent of the votes in at least 24 states out of the 36. So, that leads to do or die”.
“But in the UK, it is the parliamentarians themselves that elect their own prime minister. Infact, the prime minister, as the name suggests is just primus interpares or first among equals. The other ones are also ministers but he is prime or number one. The day they are not happy with him, they will just pass a vote of no confidence in him and he ceases to be prime minister”.
“You can see Rishi Sunak, the Indian-Pakistani English man who had been the prime Minister for over two years. As soon as he saw that he lost the election, he resigned and asked for forgiveness, saying that he has disappointed the Conservatives and he gave way quietly to the Labour Party”.
“There was no killing, no arson, no maiming, no court case or Tribunal. When Keir Starmer won, he went to the streets near Downing Street and the people lined up and he was shaking hands with them and he trekked to his office quietly and the other ministers also walked to their offices quietly. I didn’t see sirens or policemen or soldiers beating people on the streets”.
“We saw the tradition. It was done seamlessly without any breaking of heads, without money being thrown around”.
Ozekhome argued that it is time for Nigerians to consider an urgent review of the current presidential system of government.
“There is so much lessons that Nigeria needs to learn from the UK elections. Nigeria should think seriously of reviewing this presidential system of government which is too wasteful, expensive and too demanding. It is eating on our lean resources which has made Nigeria to be a borrower country”.
“We have too much leakages in government. We have a minister who has a special adviser. The special adviser has a senior special assistant. The senior special assistant has a special assistant. The special assistant has a personal assistant. Even the personal assistant has a driver and aides”.
