Jonathan Nwokpor
Speaking at a Harvard Law School lecture in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Obi argued in favour of a parliamentary form of government for Nigeria, emphasising that the country’s presidential system is failing and that Nigeria has been plagued by unaccountable, incompetent leaders who hold office for four years without being held accountable to the people.
Peter Obi, a former presidential candidate for the Labour Party (LP), claimed that Nigerian rulers had a penchant for isolating themselves from the public and appointing individuals he labelled as gangs of lunatics to speak on their behalf.
He asserts that in a parliamentary system of governance, in which the president serves as a member of parliament, he will be required to respond to questions from the public during the president’s address and that any president who is not doing up to par may face a vote of no confidence.
According to Obi, a Nigerian president could decide to cut all ties with the public for a year and no one would notice since he would have recruited agents to do the talking, and anyone who criticises the administration would be called names.
The former Anambra governor said, “What happens is, because of the presidential system that has no president in Nigeria today, we have a bad leader and he stays there for four years. When we have a parliamentary system, we can move a motion of no confidence within two or three years.
“Again, if we are in a parliamentary system, a president will be a member of parliament.
“Today, if you elect me as president of Nigeria or governor, I can remove myself entirely from being answerable to the people, just hire a gang of lunatics, talking rubbish every day.
“While, if it is a parliamentary system, during the president’s question time, he has to answer. He doesn’t have to hire anybody to speak for him.
“A president in Nigeria can decide not to talk to anybody for one year and nobody cares because he has hired all these people who do the talking. If you say anything, they call you names, they do this.
“So, we need a parliamentary system where the president will be a member of parliament and will at least, even if it is once a month, answer the people who elected him; because we didn’t elect all these gangsters. We elected somebody and we want the person to talk to us.”
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