A public affairs analyst, Nkumogu Obadiah Mbila, has said that the presidential system of government in Nigeria is a harbinger of corruption.
According to him, the country should adopt a unicameral parliament because of the huge cost of running the bicameral.
In this interview with VINCENT KALU, the evangelist and politician pointed out that the letter and the spirit of the 1999 constitution do not guarantee freedom and liberty.
What is your view on the state of the nation?
I have a different view on the state of the nation from what is being expressed by the average Nigerian. I would not hesitate to say that the drivers of the system under the watch of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu have shown unpreparedness, lack of vision to efficiently and effectively administer or superintend over the affairs of this highly complex nation.
We are ruled by a few, who lost their way and still continue in error. We are under the captivity of people who have elevated corruption to statecraft and a way of everyday life.
This is the darkest point in our journey of freedom and democracy. But we are better off today than 25 years ago when we were driving out the militarists. Today, we can boast of 25 years of unbroken democracy. It’s a landmark, and historic in our struggle which has seen us through civil war and the insecurity upheavals. But we must rise beyond the flood that wants to keep us down to embrace the stepping stones that will turn our mourning into dancing again.
Every jubilee is a call for thanksgiving and an invitation to take stock and make fresh proposals. If our vision in the next 25 years is not focused to improve the last 25 years history, then the future isn’t promising. What then can we do as citizens and government to ensure a bright future for our children and us in the next 25 years? This is the type of questions that I expect to be agitating our minds.
Without sounding overcritical, we won the fight against militarism but we have failed to deliver the promise of democracy.
What is your assessment of 25 years of unbroken democracy?
Notwithstanding the undesirable anti-human development programme of the last administration, and by extension, the present government of President Tinubu, the earliest part of the Fourth Republic which began with Obasanjo’s eight year administration was far focused and it successfully laid a very strong foundation to ensure the unbroken democracy we are enjoying in the last 25 years.
The Obasanjo administration succeeded in establishing democratic advancement by professionalising military institutions. The establishment of anti corruption institutions by his government still remains unparalleled achievement. At party level, Obasanjo tried to make popular political inclusiveness and participation as way to compensate civil war victims and greatly disadvantaged populations. We know that every jubilee offer opportunities for new beginnings. We are together after 25 years of democratic experiments. It has never happened so since the country became independent in 1960. So, it’s a cause for celebration.
In celebrating this milestone, we must always have in mind the challenge before us as a people. We must not allow the myriads of challenges to determine our appreciation of our achievements. We have a cup half full and by all measures, and we should never accept a half empty appeal. The last eight years of APC administration is to say the least, a setback of all the progress we made. The record is a monumental failure on the part of those who are driving our country. We have nothing good to remember. All we’ve had is backwards, experiment of untested and unproven policies implementation, which often resulted to counter productivity. But for our determination to work together as a people, the APC administration has sowed dangerous seed to divide our fragile unity.
Where is the nation missing it and what lessons should be learnt?
I think the missing link has been the unwillingness of our leaders to appreciate that all the federating components or nations are equal stakeholders. There’s been reoccurring ethnic supremacy by those who take others as second-class citizens or conquered people. This is the reason we went into civil war. Post civil war Nigeria had enormous opportunities to provide solutions to the missing link, that is, reconcile all ethnic nations and place religious issues in the background, where all enjoy freedom of worship, and tolerance of other faith. So, in a nutshell, we’ve not truly reconciled every tribe and tongue. President Obasanjo’s all-inclusive administration was addressing this indirectly by giving every part the rights to participate in governance. That’s how a man from the minority Ijaw tribe became the president of this country.
The Ijaw man or Efik people have not been taken as equal stakeholders by the so-called owners of Nigeria. The question of ethnicity, religion, resource control, appreciation of our national diversity continues to beg for attention by deaf leaders who are interested in parochial ends.
The National Assembly is embarking on another round of amendment of the constitution. What is your take on this?
Our 1999 constitution is passing through unnecessary alterations because the spirit behind the letters was not spirit of freedom and liberty. We are therefore paying for the lapses each time we embark on alterations in the constitution. It is important to state that the errand boy disposition of the federal parliament at every amendment has not truly supported their many attempts. So, we expect seriousness on the part of our federal lawmakers if they want Nigerians to believe them.
Since the inauguration of the Fourth National Assembly on June 9, 1999 till date, the constitution has passed through over five amendments, yet none of the amendment passed the test of true amendment. We have wasted huge sums of money to achieve a one-stop amendment in 2011/2012, at the end of the exercise, we returned to status quo. Here we go again, trusting this present exercise will give us the people’s constitution we long for.
After practising the presidential system of government uninterruptedly for 25 years, there is the clamour by some people to return to the parliamentary system. What is your position on this?
Both the presidential and parliamentary models of government have their merits and demerits. The presidential system is unnecessarily very expensive and easily conceals accountability. It is a harbinger of corruption and criminality. Most executives at the three tiers of government find many grounds to become dictatorial, albeit using constitutional immunity as shield.
The parliamentary model on the other hand is less expensive and easily exposes corrupt officials. The prime minister is weak and is seen as a representative of his party and not the people. The fact he is elected by the parliament and not by popular mandates,equally adds to his unpopular perception, especially by the population that didn’t vote for the party with majority.
We should not forget that it was under parliamentary system that our dear country was visited with civil war. Political leaders, mainly from Western Nigeria, never had respect or regards for the prime minister. That palpable demerit is a call for what the late Sani Abacha branded, as home-grown democracy. In other words, we need an improvement of the parliamentary system, especially in the election of the prime minister. We need the people’s mandates to count in the emergence of a popular prime minister. Besides, we have urgent need to adopt a unicameral parliament. After 25 years of the Fourth Republic National Assembly, we cannot point to the merit of bicameralism. On the other hand, it has imposed unacceptable and unaccountable parliamentary overhead on our federal budget. My position is a re-modification of executive-based democracy to executive parliamentary democracy with purely Nigerian content.
Since Tinubu came into power, FG, states, LGs have shared about N9 trillion, yet hardship, hunger have worsened. Are there better ways the excess funds from fuel subsidy could be utilised for the betterment of the country and citizens?
In the first place, President Tinubu was ill -dvised. The prompt removal of the fuel subsidy did not provide an atmosphere that is conducive for a focused take off of the administration. If he had settled down to study the economy he inherited and the pulse of the people he was about to lead after the most scandalous election in the history of the country, he probably would have realised the need to effectively administer the accruals from the fuel subsidy.
The accrual from the subsidy should have been channelled into aggressive job and wealth creation and SME expansion campaign. That would have impacted positively on Nigerians, as that would create jobs and put food on the table of many Nigerians. Today, Nigerians are passing through the worst economic hardship in history. The truth is Mr President acted first before planning. Meaning, he placed the cart before the horse. It cannot work because there’s no economy that can develop faster than the people who run it.
How do you rate the National Assembly of the Fourth Republic and that of the Second Republic?
There’s no parameters to rate a Second Republic National Assembly of five years of one full session and another session, which was truncated by military take over. The Fourth Republic National Assembly has done six sessions and already done one year into the seventh session.
By all analysis, the Fourth and Fifth National Assembly earned a pass mark of most assertive NASS. The Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Assemblies were rated high for their roles in stabilising democracy. The Ken Nnamani’s Fifth National Assembly stopped the unconstitutional tenure elongation campaign. Under the watch of Senator David Mark, the Sixth National Assembly created doctrine of necessity to provide for succession lacuna while the Eighth National Assembly asserted unprecedented parliamentary independence despite executive hostility. It was the standard the 8th National Assembly set that made the Ninth and 10th National Assembly look like a colossal failure.
Tinubu’s government is one year in office. What is your assessment of the administration?
I think the word rate cannot be applied where there’s completely nothing to compare and contrast. No known agenda or policy thrust before or after inauguration. There’s no campaign promises made before the election and the subsequent inauguration of the Tinubu administration. So you can see why it’s difficult to rate the one year of the administration.
Nevertheless, this has been one year of rudderless driver, who has driven the nation backward, as can be interpreted with the return to a National Anthem given to us by a foreigner, at the point of exit of the colonial influence. So, while smaller African countries like former Upper Volta are becoming Burkina Faso, Gold Coast is Ghana, we’re helping our children to cherish our colonial relics? This is a sad development.
Please, let me state here in black and white, there’s nothing wrong in anthem change, absolutely nothing! But, everything is wrong in revalidating the colonial memory. If we need better lyrics for our national anthem, there are thousands of Nigerians to craft it and deliver in good time. So, I just gave you one area of reference.
Again, we cannot forget one clear pre-election statement President Tinubu made. He did say he would continue from where President Buhari stopped. No Nigerian in his or her good frame of mind wants to remember the suffering and pain Buhari brought to the country. But Tinubu promised to advance it, and that’s why insecurity is not abating despite the huge sums of money that has been channelled to confront it.
I cannot think anyone can rate a leadership that’s bringing hunger and frustration to the young and the old. However, I am not given to saying the negative, so I won’t say it about this administration. I believe therefore, that the government is not performing but can do better.
Buhari was accused of nepotism, but many say Tinubu is taking nepotism to a higher pedestal. What is your view on this?
That’s one of the questions that gave rise to what has been popularly called, Obidient Movement. I don’t know when we are going to have a president who will take the unity and progress of this country with the same passion Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe had. But be sure it will not be long before we elect a detribalised Nigerian leader.
There’s an unspoken reason the emergence of a true Nigeria leader has remained elusive. We have a few but powerful power brokers who are bent on the protection of non-indigenous interests. These few powerful ones are more interested in their best interests than the interests of indigenous Nigerians. They can be likened to the harlot who prefers the death of her friend’s child that makes both of them childless.
Nigerians have been hoodwinked to make enemies with their fellow compatriots in order to protect the interests of this few. Who will ever believe that the avoidable and unnecessary civil war was rather advancing the evil machinations of this few? I mean, why didn’t they accept an accord that could have promoted regional autonomy and accelerated development and competitiveness?
They prefer a consumption lifestyle because they feel they are better with a country that doesn’t work. So, Tinubu in his advancing Buhari’s leadership style has built on the nepotism he inherited.
What is your take on the way Abia governor, Dr. Alex Otti is running the state?
Governor Alex Otti is a hero of the people of Abia State. A state that has never witnessed infrastructural development from past administrations can only think that good governance is all about filling infrastructural deficit. But good governance goes beyond infrastructural provisions. What of human capital development, instilling popular participation, etc? Governor Otti has done extremely well in provision of infrastructure. But, I’m still analysing other areas that appear to be neglected.
Take for example; Abia has three senatorial headquarters namely Umuahia, Aba and Ohafia. We are not seeing even distribution of infrastructural facilities on the basis of senatorial district. We expected a high concentration of development in Aba, given its economic potential, and then followed by Umuahia, the state capital and Ohafia, the capital of Abia North. This is not how evenly distribution of infrastructural facilities has been with Governor Otti’s administration.