16022021 - Nigeria’s security architecture being re-jigged — SERVICE CHIEFS

18 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021
ON January 19, 2021, around 8.15
am on the Presidential Boulevard
Road near Guarantee Trust Bank
opposite Lawson Group School, Kuto,
in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, a
tanker transporting petrol exploded,
killing at least one person and
burning scores of vehicles.
That same day, at about 1.30 pm,
another tanker laden with PMS fell dead siblings heard about the death
and spilled its content on the road of her children, she slumped and died.
along Alapere-Ogudu area in Lagos Truly, accidents are usually
State.
unpredictable, but looking at the
Also recently, on Saturday, January deplorable conditions of Nigerian
23, 2021, around 6.00 pm, a truck roads and the scraps of metals called
loaded with cement, following brake vehicles that ply the roads, one may
failure, rammed into some business not really be surprised at the frequency
centres and shops near the gate of of accidents which claim the lives of
Adekunle Ajasin University, AAU, in Nigerians almost on daily basis.
Akungba Akoko, Ondo State.
Life has become very cheap in the
Sadly, the ghastly AAU accident country because death lurks at every
killed three siblings, two of which are corner for all Nigerians as they go
final year students of the university. about trying to earn a living. If one
As soon as the mother of the three was lucky to escape death in the hands
Preventing avoidable death in Nigeria
of killer herdsmen, Boko Haram or
other criminal gangs, one ends up in
a raging fire from an exploded tanker
laden with fuel, or crushed by a
container that fell off from a truck
plying one of the roads riddled with
ditches and gullies.
Nigerians, no doubt, are tough
people, but unfortunately, many years
of neglect of our roads by the
authorities, corruption – which blinds
traffic officers from seeing and
removing from the roads vehicles that
are not road-worthy – and lawlessness
on the part of some road users, have
combined to subject Nigerians to all
manners of avoidable deaths.
Good road networks, as we have
observed before, are like the veins and
arteries that carry life-giving blood to
all vital organs of the body.
A country or city without good roads
is not only doomed, but also a death
trap to the citizens.
Government must, therefore, devise
means of building new roads and
maintaining the existing ones.
The excuses often tendered that
recurrent expenditure gulps all the
money in the budget leaving nothing
for capital expenditure is not tenable,
because there are many leakages in
public finance.
If those leakages are plugged, and
corruption is properly tackled, there
will be enough money to maintain our
roads and save our people from these
avoidable deaths.
Can we afford bicameral legislature?
COVID-19 is ravaging our land and
destroying the economy. In the
meantime the economy is under-performing.
The country has gradually continued to slip
back. There is a shortfall on our oil revenue.
Nigeria’s foreign capital inflow has sunk to
$9.68 billion, the lowest in four years. The
International Monetary Fund, IMF, says
Nigeria’s economy is at “critical juncture” and
has urged for VAT hike.
The central government has hinted to fund
the budget from other means apart from oil
which is the country’s economic main-stay.
There is even a discussion by government to
commence the sale of assets in ten state-owned
corporations, a move that will generate about
$800 milion. There is the urgent need for us to
cut our coat to our sizes. If you cut your coat
according to your situation, you limit what
you do to the account of your resources. Action
should suit circumstances or resources. Is there
any need for us to sustain the bicameral system
of legislature we are operating now?
Bicameralism is the practice of having
a legislature divided into two
separate assemblies, chambers, or houses,
known as a bicameral legislature.
Bicameralism is distinguished
from unicameralism, in which all members
deliberate and vote as a single group. As of
2015, about 40 per cent of the world’s national
legislatures are bicameral, and about 60 per
cent are unicameral. Bicameral system of
legislature means running the Senate and
House of Representatives pari passu.
Experts have listed the advantages and
disadvantages of bicameral legislature.
Bicameral legislatures make it possible for
better laws to be made in the country,
since bills are somewhat properly debated in
bicameral legislature. It is difficult for the
executive arm to dominate the two chambers;
the second chamber of bicameral legislature
reduces the work load of the upper house.
Bicameral legislature makes room for equal
and adequate representation of the people in
a federal state.
The second chamber of bicameral
legislature checks and prevents hasty and illconsidered
passage of bills unlike in the case
of a unicameral legislature. The second
chamber of a bicameral legislature corrects
any faulty legislation coming from the first
chamber. Bicameral legislatures protect the
interests of minority groups. A bicameral
legislature makes it possible for public opinion
to be properly expressed on the issues
concerned before bills are passed by delaying
OPINION
the bills in the two chambers. Bicameral
legislatures result in division of labour in
certain aspects of the functions performed by
the legislature between the two legislative
chambers. Bicameral legislatures create room
for more politically and administratively
experienced people to be useful in the art of
law making. The second chamber of
bicameral legislature checks the excesses and
guides against the tyranny or dictatorship of a
one chamber.
The Disadvantages of Bicameral
Legislature: The second chamber of
bicameral legislature may be used as a
dumping ground for political rejects at the
polls if its membership is by nomination or
appointment. A bicameral legislature
encourages duplication of functions since they
perform the same function. Bicameral
legislatures waste a lot of public fund because
The Presidential System of
government we are running is
too expensive and it will lead
us to nowhere
the government will try to maintain the two
legislative chambers and the paraphernalia
that go with them. A bicameral legislature is
not good for passing bills in times of
emergency because of delays that result from
having two chambers.
Many legislators have to go through the bills
before they are passed or carried out.
Bicameral legislatures lead to unnecessary
rivalry as to which of the two houses is superior
to the other. In a bicameral legislature, most
of the members assigned in the second chamber
have advanced in age and are mostly inactive;
appointment rather than election of members
of the upper house as it is done in Britain is
undemocratic.
Another disadvantage of a bicameral
legislature the serious delay in the act of law
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making. But above all, it saves cost in the act
of running of government.
In spite of all these advantages and
disadvantages, can our economy sustain the
Presidential system of government we are
running now? Countries with unicameral
governments include Armenia, Bulgaria,
Denmark, Hungary, Monaco, Ukraine, Serbia,
Turkey and Sweden. Unicameral systems
became more popular during the 20th century
and some countries, including Greece, New
Zealand and Peru, switched from a bicameral
to a unicameral. Ghana, our neighbour,
practices unicameral. That does not make
these countries less democratic than we are.
We are not discussing about the demerits of
democracy for democracy has come to stay.
What we are discussing is the reduction in the
cost of governance. The Presidential System
of government we are running is too expensive
and it will lead us to nowhere. Look at our
roads, hospitals, schools, etc and all the
infrastructural facilities we have: they are
lacking because of the high cost of governance.
Something has to be done in terms of reducing
cost.
Apart from bicameralism or unicameralism,
there is also the need to address whether or not
we can continue the Presidential System of
Government. The Presidential System of
Government has given two wide powers to the
centre. We are not discussing about he
perpetual Constitution amendment, that has
given opportunity to the deputy Senate
President and the deputy speaker of the House
of Representatives and members of their
committees since 1999 to make some gains.
We are discussing whether or not this
Presidential System suit us.
We adopted this system of government in
haste. It was faulty. It was fallacious. And that
is why it is not working and it can not work no
matter how long we practice it.
Continues next week