The Northern Elders Forum has declared that the Edict that birthed Nigeria expired 10 years ago.
The chairman of the Forum, Ango Abdullahi, stated this, in an interview, on the sidelines of a “national dialogue on home grown parliamentary system” organised by a group of members of the House of Representatives under the aegis of the Parliamentary System Support Group (PSSG).
The event was to galvanize support for a bill sponsored by 83 members of the PSSG for the country to return to parliamentary system of government. The bill is awaiting second reading in the House of Representatives.
The elder statesman noted:“Nigeria was born in 1914. It was a product of an Edict by the colonial officials that were largely military, in consultation with a few of our elders, about five or six of them. The Sultan of that period. The Shehu of Borno of that period. The Alaafin of Oyo of that period. Obong of Calabar of that period and other names that I have forgotten.
“They sat down and looked at development that was taking place in colonized areas of Lagos, Southern Nigeria and the North. So by 1914, the colonial masters in Britain wanted to solidify their gains so that they could more easily exploit the colony. That was how they sat down and agreed that they would amalgamate the territories of Lagos, South and North. And the wife of the governor general at that time, was the one that gave us our name, Nigeria.
“In the Edict, if you read it, it was clear that we were being encouraged from various backgrounds to come together and build a country called Nigeria. And our leaders at that time agreed that we will try. But we were advised in the details of the Edict that we should be monitoring progress over the years.. but the life of the edict was 100 years. Which meant that the Edict expired 2014, which is 100 years from its formation..
“The question now is that we are now in 2024, this kind of dialogue reminds us that we have a history that started In 1914, and in the conclusion of that Edict, it says if we failed to be a country that we will call our own, and are proud of our country, by the expiration of that period, the various components that were in that amalgamation discussion could go their separate ways.”
Abdullahi said the dialogue was one of the ways to chart a path forward for the country.
Earlier, the elder statesman stated that the adoption of the presidential system of government was a mistake. “This dialogue should really be as objective as passionate if possible to look at some of the things that we did wrongly. One of the things we did wrongly was to bring in a system that did not fit us. If we can, we should work on something. It must not necessarily be a typical parliamentary system from our former colonial masters, it could be something else.”
However, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, while speaking at the event, said the challenge with the Nigerian version of the presidential system of government is that it stifles accountability.
“The major problem with the presidential system is not because we borrowed the system, but those who copied the system did not do a wonderful job. I got to know this in my undergraduate days. The problem is that those who copied and created the 1979 constitution, it is not the American system that we copied. In the US, impeachment of the executive is real, it can happen. Even judges can be impeached.
“The provision is that it is the House that carries out impeachment, both for the executive and members of the judiciary, while it is the senate that tries them. And if they are convicted by the senate, they are removed, and it is real. But in Nigeria, section 143 does not provide anything about impeachment. It just mentioned it because at the end of the day, everything the National Assembly has done will be handed over to politicians. They call them people of impeccable character.
“I don’t know where we can find these angels. Their determination is final, it cannot even be queried by the National Assembly or any court in Nigeria. And the seven persons of impeccable character are handpicked by the CJN, who himself is an appointee of the president. So how do you make this thing real?”
Former Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, also expressed support for a return to the parliamentary system of government, stating that it was difficult for one man to effectively administer the affairs of 200 million Nigerians without checks.
“I have said it in passing that the primary responsibility of the government is the welfare and security of the people. When those two things cannot be guaranteed, forget it, there cannot be a stable society.
“There was a weakness that led to our colonialism in the first place, it was a weakness. If you are strong enough, you would not be colonized. Part of it is the chairing of these individual dictators, that we call rulers.
“If we go on believing that one man, no matter how good, has the capacity to superintend over 220 million Nigerians alone, without checks, we are joking. By that alone, I am opposed to the executive system of government. I believe collective arrangement which parliamentary system guarantee is the best for a nation like ours.”
Earlier, the guest speaker, Usman Bugaje, said Nigerians have not fared well in the last 25 years of the current democratic dispensation. Bugaje, who was national secretary of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (CAN), noted that apart from deepened poverty, there is also the challenge of escalating insecurity and mind boggling corruption.
He explained that a discourse of a home grown political system has to take into cognizance of three major factors.
“One we have to look at, because I see this as a process of reinventing our politics because our politics is really sick, it’s decaying and citizens are agitating because it is not given them what they are looking for. So, it is in our own interest to reinvent it to meet the aspirations of our society. We need to look at a new political philosophy when we start discussing what is the objective of politics. Is it personal aggrandizement?
“The second thing is new political parties. Our political parties, if we want to be honest with ourselves, are not different from any other. They are just the same. We need to create new political parties with very clear intellectual constituents, with very defined ideals so that when I move from one party to the other, I will be conscious of the fact that I now have a particular way of thinking to the other.
“Thirdly we have to change our political culture. (Our) Political culture is characterised by violence, merchandise politics, total disconnect between the actual challenges that are facing this country and the politics that we play. Otherwise politics change its meaning.” (Daily Sun)
