13022020

WHY do most countries have
prime ministers and not
executive presidents? Of the 193
member states of the United
Nations, only about 46 have a
presidential system, where full
executive powers are vested in one
person.
Out of the 50 sovereign states in
Europe, 34 are parliamentarian; so
are nearly 40 of the 54 member states
of the Commonwealth, including the
most successful ones, such as
Canada, Australia, India and
Singapore. So, which one is better
for Nigeria: executive president or
prime minister?
Of course, at independence in
1960, Nigeria practised the
parliamentary system until the
military terminated it after a coup
d’état in 1966. About thirteen years
later, when General Olusegun
Obasanjo decided to return Nigeria
to civil rule, he set up a constitutional
drafting committee to fashion a new
Constitution for the country. But he
so loathed the oppositional politics
associated with the parliamentary
system that he effectively instructed
the “49 Wise Men” tasked with
drafting the 1979 Constitution to
shun the system.
In truth, the committee itself was
minded to adopt the presidential
system. One of its key reasons was
that Nigeria needed a strong and
powerful president to bring the
country together and act as the
symbol of national unity. But that
was utterly naïve. You can’t govern a
multi-ethnic country with a
strongman mentality by vesting
excessive powers in one person.
That’s why most ethnically-divided
countries favour the parliamentary
system, which is representative,
consultative and collegial.
Nigeria needs a collegial prime
minister, not a buccaneering president
Let’s face it, which president has
united this country or really been the
symbol of national unity? Instead of
authoritarian utopia, where strong
leaders bring people happily
together, what we’ve had is
totalitarian dystopia, where
supposedly unifying leaders use
excessive military force to suppress
ethnic agitations, as with the Odi
massacre under President Obasanjo
and “Operation python dance”
under President Buhari.
But that’s what happens where
there is a mismatch of power and
identity. Where excessive powers are
vested in one person at the centre,
while identities reside at the subnational
levels, you are bound to have
such tensions. Which is why, the
parliamentary system, based on its
collegiality and distribution of
power, is the commonest form of
government in multi-ethnic states.
In The Republic, Socrates
proposed that in the ideal city-state,
executive power should rest solely in
the hands of a philosopher-ruler. But
there are two things to note about
Socrates’ proposal. The first is that
his ideal city-state was a selfcontained
and ethnically
monochrome society, not a
heterogenous multi-ethnic state. The
second is that the philosopher-ruler
must have a specialised form of
knowledge (gnosis); in other words,
a captain with adequate knowledge
of navigation to steer the ship of
state!
So, at the risk of belabouring the
point, an all-powerful executive
The parliamentary
system is a better route
to political stability,
government
effectiveness and
economic progress for
this country than the
current flawed system
president, that sees himself as the
embodiment of the national interest,
is not suitable for ethnicallypolarised
nations like Nigeria.
Secondly, even if Nigeria were to
have a strong executive president,
this country has never produced, and
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020 —31
is incapable of producing, visionary
and competent leaders.
Tell me, which Nigerian president
can be described as a captain with
adequate knowledge to steer this
country’s ship-of-state? Why would
you vest so much executive power in
someone who can’t govern the
country well, but is likely to abuse
the power?
Yet, that’s how the Nigerian
Constitution, by implication,
prescribes that this country should
be governed. Section 5(5) gives that
president “executive powers”, which
he can exercise either “directly or
through the vice president and
ministers”. Section 148 reiterates
that the President “may, in his
discretion”, assign any state
responsibility to the vice president
or any minister. So, even though
under section 148 (2), the president
is obliged to form a cabinet, he may,
if he wishes, not allow any minister
or even the vice president to exercise
any executive power.
Indeed, last year, President Buhari
stripped Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo of virtually all the key
responsibilities he had during their
first term. So, despite his relative
youth, intellect and energy, Osinbajo
functions almost entirely at the
behest of the president and the cabal
around him.
The ideal constitutional
arrangement is for President Buhari
to be the ceremonial head of state,
which suits his well, while Osinbajo
is the prime minister and head of
government. With that arrangement,
Buhari can make the overseas trips,
which he seems to enjoy, and be as
laid-back as he wants, while
Osinbajo, as prime minister, gets on
with running the government, as he
did effectively on the two occasions
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President Buhari was on long
medical vacations.
At the moment, even though the
president is at home, no one seems
to be running the country. The
situation in Nigeria is adrift,
confused, chaotic. A mess! So, let’s
face it, an executive presidency is not
good for this country. Academics talk
about the “perils of presidentialism”
in terms of political gridlock due to
competing claims for legitimacy by
the president and the legislature.
That’s true. But the biggest
problems are the tendency towards
authoritarianism and the lack of
accountability or effective checks
and balances.
I mean, who can really hold
President Buhari to account? A few
years ago, even a minister refused to
appear before a committee of the
National Assembly, saying that she
was only answerable to the
president! That’s unthinkable in a
parliamentary system.
In their empirical study, based on
data from 119 countries across the
period 1950 to 2015, economists
Gulcin Ozkan and Richard
McManns found that parliamentary
systems' consistency feature higher
scores of democracy, more extensive
media freedoms, a stronger rule of
law and better economic
performance. What’s more,
according to the IMF,
parliamentarism is less prone to
corruption and, of course, less
expensive than presidentialism!
The parliamentary system is a
better route to political stability,
government effectiveness and
economic progress for this country
than the current flawed system.
Which is why part of restructuring
Nigeria must include returning it to
the parliamentary system.
Akpabio and new vision for Niger Delta
By ANIETIE EKONG
THE appointment of Senator Godswill
Akpabio as the Minister of Niger Delta
Affairs on August 20, 2019 was greeted by
great enthusiasm by people across the Niger
Delta region. President Muhammadu
Buhari was widely hailed for the
appointment described as putting a square
peg in a square hole.
The excitement of the people was not
misplaced. As Governor of Akwa Ibom State
for eight years (2007 – 2015) Chief Akpabio
unleashed a development model never
experienced in Nigeria which the people
aptly termed “Uncommon Transformation”.
The state within the period witnessed
unprecedented infrastructural renaissance
that a once largely civil service state became
a destination of choice among Nigerians.
This was possible because of the
impeccable infrastructural facilities that
Chief Akpabio built in the state. The roads
he built over 10 years ago have stood the
test of times as there are no potholes in them.
The airport he built has made access to the
state as a destination possible.
The stadium he built, fittingly named after
him as Godswill Akpabio International
Stadium, is the only FIFA approved stadium
in Nigeria, according to the Minister of
Sports, Mr. Sunday Dare.
The former Minister of Health, Prof Isaac
Adewole was so amazed at Ibom Specialist
Hospital built by Akpabio when he
embarked on a tour of the hospital that he
declared that Nigerians had no reason to
embark on medical tourism abroad with the
facilities he saw at the hospital which he
described as world class. One can go on
and on.
It was because of the footprints that
Senator Akpabio had left on the sands of
Akwa Ibom State as governor that there was
a general consensus that his appointment
as minister was widely received as well
deserved and the people commended
President Buhari for his choice to man the
Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.
The Niger Delta is a region that has
contributed so much to the nation’s treasury
but gets underdevelopment in return. The
creation of the Ministry of Niger Delta
Affairs and the Niger Delta Development
Commission, NDDC, was a direct response
to the series of agitations by the people of
the Niger Delta flowing from the deep sense
of exclusion, environmental degradation,
lack of development, poverty and
unemployment facing the region.
NDDC as an interventionist agency was
meant to address the developmental
challenges in the Niger Delta region but
instead the agency has allegedly enriched a
few people while shortchanging the majority
of the people of the Niger Delta.
Faceless contractors have pocketed
money for phantom projects that were never
meant to be executed. To put it mildly, NDDC
has been a cesspool of corruption and bad
corporate governance.
This was why President Buhari ordered
that a forensic audit of the Commission be
carried out to unravel why so much money
was sunk into the Commission without
commensurate result.
Under the supervision of Senator Akpabio
the process of forensic audit has started and
when completed it would reposition the
Commission and set a governance structure
that would enable the NDDC to deliver on
its core mandate instead of being a conduit
for politicians to siphon the resources meant
for the collective good of the people of the
region. This, in itself, is a commendable
initiative of the administration of President
Buhari.
Already the fear of forensic audit by
contractors is the beginning of wisdom.
Contractors who had been mobilised with
no intention of doing the jobs have returned
to site. With all the financial inflow from
the Federal Government, the International
Oil Companies, development partners and
other sources, the current debt profile of
NDDC stands at about N2 trillion. This has
led to the littering of the region with over
12,000 uncompleted and abandoned
projects.
Typically, jobs done by the NDDC
contractors are shoddy and sub-standard. It
is the vision of Senator Akpabio that the
Commission should be repositioned to
complete ongoing and abandoned projects
while its liabilities are reduced to make the
interventionist agency “bankable” and
Akpabio envisages a peaceful
and prosperous region with
clusters of small and medium
industries where the people
are engaged to contribute to its
development
deliver quality projects. It does not make
sense doling out politically induced
contracts that are not funded.
In almost 20 years after its establishment,
the NDDC is still operating from a rented
headquarters building. The headquarters
building started since the days of the Oil
Mineral Producing Areas Development
Commission, OMPADEC, the progenitor of
NDDC, has remained uncompleted while
the commission pays about N300 million
as rent every year.
In his first meeting with the management
of the commission, Senator Akpabio put it
succinctly that it was a shame that a
commission which so much funds has passed
through was still a tenant and gave them a
marching order to complete the permanent
headquarters building.
The building which is almost completed
now, would be commissioned and put to use
in the next few months. The Ministry of
Niger Delta Affairs would soon complete
the construction of nine housing estates as
well as the construction of one skills
acquisition institute in each of the Niger
Delta States. The building of the housing
estates and skills acquisition institutes have
meaningfully engaged the youths of the
region. During a recent visit to the projects,
Senator Akpabio assured the communities
that the Federal Government would
complete the projects so that they can be put
to use.
Senator Akpabio has realised the
importance of peace in the development of
the Niger Delta region. Famously known as
“the man who turned boys into men” during
his tenure as governor of Akwa Ibom State,
he has prioritised youth empowerment to
achieve peace in the region.
To this end, Senator Akpabio had in the
first 100 days as minister empowered about
1600 youths with different skills through the
youth empowerment programme of the
Ministry. And just recently, he secured
the commitment of the Central Bank of
Nigeria, CBN, for strategic alliance for
improved agricultural development and the
provision of employment opportunities for
the teeming youths of the Niger Delta.
The ministry is embarking on a pilot
programme on rice production in the nine
states of the region which would also help
to provide employment opportunities for the
people, check hostilities and youth
restiveness and improve the living standard
of the people.
Senator Akpabio as minister of Niger
Delta Affairs envisages a peaceful and
prosperous region with clusters of small and
medium industries where the people are
engaged to contribute to the development
of the region.
This is the mandate that President Buhari
has handed down to the minister and there
is an agreement that he has started well and
would also accomplish these onerous tasks.
* Ekong, Chief Press Secretary to the
Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, wrote from
Abuja.