From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Member of the House of Representatives( Abak/Etim Ekpo/ Ika) Federal Constituency of Akwa Ibom State, Clement Jimbo, has explained how the presidential system can work in Nigeria even as he condemned the incessant arrests and detention of journalists by security agencies in the country.
The lawmaker also spoke on various issues including some constitution alteration bills before the House.
There is a constitution review proposal by some of your colleagues to return the country to parliamentary system of government. The argument is that the presidential system we run is too expensive. Where do you stand on this?
I don’t support that totally. I have listened to the argument of why we should move back to the parliamentary system. It has its own merits. It equally has its own demerits. But I will tell you something.
The presidential system of government we are currently operating, by and large has been domesticated in the psyche of all Nigerians.
It’s just like you traveling from a Akwa Ibom State, for example, to Abuja. You have got to Benue State, you have entered Kogi State.
You are almost at the verge, in the next 2, 3 hours you are in Abuja. Then all of a sudden, you receive a call that you are asked to turn back. And come to Akwa Ibom State; number one, the inertia; what is called inertia in physics, that was propelling you to your destination, which is Abuja, what you’ll be thinking of is the energy for you to start driving back to the starting point.
And right now, sincerely I will tell you. Nigeria is not ready for that. We have gone far into the presidential system of government, that asking the entire country to go back to parliamentary system will be an Herculean task. That is not to say it is not possible, but then, we will need to put so much energy and so much effort to navigate the system. And that is where the work is and I tell you the truth, we are not ready.
Let us channel all our energy and all our efforts to see to it that the current system of government we are operating work effectively. Then we can now look at the wastages you are talking about.
In the presidential system we are operating, have we been able to curtail waste, leakages for us to come to a point where we can say that the resources of the nation cannot carry the presidential system? The answer is no.
So, until we are sure that what we are operating is indeed a presidential system and indeed that resources allocated to critical sectors go to the critical sectors, and then we see that what is available for all these critical sectors are not enough and we will conclusively say, if we cut cost of governance, then moving into parliamentary system that cost served from presidential system will be able to cater for this critical sector, then everybody will know; not in the case where we still have a lot of frivolities in our budgeting system.
Many agencies still repeating procurement of computer system every year. For crying out loud, a system that you buy today you can use it for the next 10 years; must you buy it every day. So, those are the wastages that we must check. In the presidential system, we are currently operating to be sure that indeed what we have is too expensive.
So, how do we make the presidential system work effectively?
Holding government to account.
What is the current implementation of 2024 budget? Seven months into the fiscal year, we need to hold government to account. From the president down to the councilor, that is what we need. Because there is a tendency for government at all levels to throw their hands in fatalistic resignation because there is nobody asking critical questions.
How many Nigerians have called their different representatives? How many Nigerians have called on the different ministers appointed? Based on the provisions that in the 2024 budget as regards to project domiciled across the length and breadth of Nigeria for them to know when such project will be executed for the benefit of the people.
If that is not done, the Executive can just say okay nobody knows, let us just allow things to pass. But that is how to make it work. We need to hold government to account because they represent the people and the people are their critical factor.
But it is the duty of the legislature, which you are part of?
That is not the point. Nigeria made up of over 200 million human beings. What is the number in the National Assembly? It’s less than 500.
So what can we do. To what extent? For example, the Appropriation Committee of the House recently invited the Minister for Finance, Minister for Budget and National Planning, Accountant General of the Federation to throw light on why up till now, seven months into the budget implementation, the capital component is not implemented.
It is part of our work, but we as legislators can’t do that alone. We have our limit. Nigerians should equally do their own part, because it takes two to tango.
If we are doing our part, Nigerians who are in the majority are folding their hands, then we have a limitation. Let Nigerians call their respective representatives and ask them questions. Let them equally call the ministers and ask questions.
Commissioners, their governors; are you not amazed that every single Nigerian seems to look at the Federal Government; forgetting that Nigeria operates federating units, federating system. We have the Federal government. We have the subnational- the state governors. How many people are bold enough to even call their governors? Can they even have access to their governors? Is it their Commissioners? When the Federal Government gives palliative measures to state governors for the people in their respective states, how many of them call their governors to account.
But everybody’s very fast on pointing accusing fingers to the Federal Government, which is normal. But alongside that, also look at the governor that is closer to you in your state.
Look at the speaker of the House of Assembly in your state. Look at the Commissioners in your state. Look at the government chairman in your state.
I like the fact that the Supreme Court today has made a categorical pronouncement that state governors holding the accounts, the funds of local government is illegal. How many of those citizens will call their governor and say from today, all monies, make sure it goes to the local government system. How many of them can hold their local government chairman to account? That is where it should be.
Few days back, you moved a motion on the need to curtail incessant and illegal arrests of journalists, what informed that?
If you look at Nigeria, Nigeria is practising democracy. And democracy as it is defined is the government of the People by the people and for the people.
And if you equally look at the statement credited to Lee Kwan Yew in his book titled from Third world to First, he said and I quote, “we cannot afford to forget that public order, economic prosperity, personal progress and security are not the natural order of things.
“They depend on ceaseless efforts and attention from an effective and honest government that the people must elect.” The underlining word there is people. So, it behoves on government and those in government to make sure the people that they are leading, representing are happy with them.
And we have three tiers of government. We have the Federal Government, the state government and the local government. And the same thing, we have the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.
And the fourth estate of the realm, which is the media community to me holds a key towards driving government processes formulation of government’s policies to the hinterland, to the grassroots. And if these people, this set of people are not given the free space, the environment for them to express their profession, in such a manner that they will equally see to the good intentions of government, to drive such good intention to the people, that government officials are leading, then there is that tendency for wrong narratives of government to be dropped to the people.
Truth be told, what people hear, see consistently, to a greater extent form the opinion and beliefs of such people. So, if what the people we are leading,
hear every day that government is not doing well, who are those responsible in churning this statement, “government is not doing well”. It is the journalist. And this headline could have been propelled by events, that must have happened with that particular journalist, via the instrumentality of our security agents.
So, the well-being of journalists is very key. If a journalist is treated well, if a journalist knows that he has his government’s backing, that he has people that are looking for his welfare as a journalist practising in a country, such a journalist will equally be very cautious on the quality of information, he churns out to the people, because eventually what journalists put out there is what people will believe, irrespective of what maybe, the president says, or what the commissioner says or what the governor says or what the minister says. They will believe what the journalists say more than the president.
Therefore, it is equally incumbent on us to see to it that those that may want to be overzealous in carrying out their responsibilities are called to order; that those that are practice
sing journalism are equally citizens of Nigeria. Just like Mr. President, just like the senators, just like the ministers; they equally must be treated with the respect that their profession deserves.
Free press is crucial to democracy. This assault on the media, what does it portend for our democracy?
It is clear. Like I defined, democracy, is the government of the people. When you stifle the space, you are infringing on the rights of people. And it is not a welcome development except Nigeria is not practising democracy.
But I know, we are a democratic nation. Because the office I am currently occupying, I came in here via the instrumentality of democracy. I was elected and many people voted for me. And since the number of people that voted for me was more than my opponent, I was declared the winner. That is democracy; majority of the people standing by you. For any nation to have a buy in of the policies that he or she intends to send to the people in a country, you must be perceived by the same people as being friendly.
You don’t go against the people and expect them to welcome what you have to offer them. So you give an open arms; welcome them, then you tell them what you need to tell them like the man I quoted.
Singapore had Independence in 1965, in 1990, within the space of 25 years, they exited from being a Third world country to becoming a developing nation, to becoming a developed nation, within the space of 25 years. How did they do that?
Because for every policy that they reel out to the people, they had the buy in of the people. The same thing in any Nation, same thing will be in Nigeria.
If the government says they want to do this, we should see many people supporting the policies. And the foundation must be laid. And that is borne out of patriotism and patriotism here is not forced out of citizens. It is willingly given to the leaders.
Like I said or like I will always say, it is in the best interests of citizens to support government to succeed because the success of government is directly proportional to the success of the citizens. But then, you can’t force citizens to support. They must see reasons why they should support you.