….. Charges on Liberal Democracy
Leyoo Ajeokun
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on has regretted the administrative style of successive government in Nigeria in the runnings of the affairs of the country.
The former president specifically decried the rate at which the present governments have diverted from the solid foundation he laid in the past and signalled warnings that such step could plung the Country into a total collapse if leaders and the governed, including the three arms of government, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary didn’t change their ways.
Obasanjo, who stated that the country wouldn’t move close to achieving her goals except the citizens, both the led and leaders embraced what he termed “moral rearmament”, decried the appalling situation of the Country for taking
two steps forward, one step aside and four steps backwards.
He however warned that the country would be sitting on a keg of gunpowder that could explode anytime if Nigeria failed to take courageous and decisive steps to address her several political, socio-economic and ethnic challenges.
Speaking on Friday while receiving six members of the House of Representatives in Abeokuta, who were co-sponsors of bills on a single term of six years, rotation of presidency between the North and the South as well as rotation of governorship slot among the three Senatorial districts of each of the 36 States, Obasanjo submitted that it would be wrong for those in Government to continue to enjoy while it would be telling suffering masses to be patient.
The lawmakers in the entourage included Abdulmalik Danga from Kogi State; Usman Midala from Borno State; Matthew Nwogu from Imo State; Peter Aniekwe from Anambra State; Kama Nkemkanma from Ebonyi State and Ugochinyere Ikenga from Imo State.
He said, “More than anything else such as changing our system of government, moving to a single term of six or four years, we must change our ways of doing things in this country, we must decarbonise our brains, we must change our mentality and characters
“How I wish that the succeeding governments are building on the foundation we laid even if not so fast as one would have wanted it but sadly the blocks we put there are even being removed
“What I Know about Nigeria is that yes, if we get it right, the leadership, the team because one tree does not make a forest, you need a good leader but you also need a good team for the well-done job.
“The point is that if we get this right in about two and half years, we shall get some of the challenges behind us and in about 10 years we would have gotten a solid foundation and about 25 years we are there.
“But we have always to take one step forward, two steps aside and four steps backwards and it is why we are where we are in the country
“For me, it is not so much about the system but we may need to rethink the Liberal democracy where we talk of loyal opposition. What we do in Africa is that we sit down and get consensus and after we have done that there is no opposition, everyone is on the same page and we move together.
“The word for opposition in all African languages that I have looked into is enemies. What do you do with loyal enemies? Nothing like that Once you take it, it belongs to you, the winners take all and the opposition goes into the wilderness. That is what we do but this is not good. We need everyone to join hands together and move the society forward.
“The issue for me if we get it right whether we have a single term of six years or two terms of four years is that we must decarbonise our brains and mentality.
“Look if you give him a single term of six years he can go ahead and still do the evil he would have done in a case of two terms of four years, the only difference is that he would have done that within six years and not four years and that is if he is not reelected for another four years
“To me, this is not our problem, our main problem is ourselves and until we take care of ourselves, if we like let us adopt a single term of six years, one term of four years among others with the same mentality and same way of doing things, nothing will change
“So the very beginning is ourselves, yes system, yes we have to rethink our democracy but the character of people in government must change, with all due respect, most of those in government should right now be behind bars or in gallows.
“The three arms of the Government, that is, the legislature, the executive, the judiciary, the civil service and the private sector must change their ways, otherwise we all sink into the same boat called Nigeria.
“As I have warned earlier, we should know that we are all sitting on a keg of gunpowder if we fail to begin to do the right thing…for instance, what the youth are demanding is very legitimate and should be listened to or why should they be denied of what rightfully belongs to them?
“They are frustrated, they are hungry, they are angry, they are unemployed, they deserved to be given listening ears”.
Responding on behalf of the lawmakers, Ugochinyere Ikenga representing Ideato North/Imo South Federal Constituency, Imo State, said that the legislators came to see the former president to draw from his wealth of knowledge and experience being one of the highly-respected voices in Africa.
Ikenga highlighted what the lawmakers were canvassing in the bill, which was to seek a single term of six years and rotational Presidency between the South and the North as well as rotation of governorship slots among the three Senatorial districts of each of 36 States of the Federation, and it was being done in the spirit of fairness, equality and justice.