The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has advocated a
single-term presidency of five or six years for Nigeria and other
African countries to deepen democracy and good governance.
Mr. Ekweremadu spoke while delivering a lecture entitled:
‘Constitutionalism and the Challenges of Leadership in Africa: an
Evaluation of Tested Models’ on Tuesday.
The event was organised by the Centre for Media and Peace
Initiatives, a New York-based international NGO to mark its 10th
anniversary.
“A more modest proposal seeks not the abandonment of the presidential
system per se but the re-designing of term limits for political chief
executives.
“This is in order to reduce the acrimonious conflict, divisiveness
and instability arising from partisan or factional competition for
executive offices in the federation.
“I support the proposals to transform the current tenure of two four-year terms into a single term of five or six years.
“Among other advertised benefits, single terms would avoid the
distractions, manipulations and divisiveness of re-election campaigns
while facilitating a more rapid circulation or rotation of power among
the various groups”.
According to him, a single term of four years is also less costly as
it will reduce the cost of conducting general elections every four
years.
Mr. Ekweremadu urged Nigeria and other African countries to learn
from the failures and successes of older democracies, particularly, the
Latin American democracies.
He noted that many of the Latin Americas transited from autocratic
regimes to democracies, discovering that the politics of succession,
including incumbents’ penchant for self-perpetuation, was overheating
the system.
As a solution, they adopted the single term presidency until such a
time their respective democracies matured and stabilised, he said.
“It is for this reason that the Senate Committee on the Review of the
1999 Constitution, which I chair, felt, in 2014, that a single term
would serve the ends of our current democracy.
“Unfortunately, the recommendation failed because ethnic suspicions
and parochial interests prevented reasonable and good faith evaluation
of our worthy proposal,” he said.
Mr. Ekweremadu also suggested a rotational presidency among the
ethnic groups or geographical zones, saying it might prove reassuring to
ethnic groups and promote loyalty to the nation.
According to him, rotational presidency will reassure every constituent part that power will come their way at a given interval.
“Therefore, it may well be time to re-visit the idea of rotational
presidency that was first muted in Nigeria by late military Head of
State Sani Abacha.”
He suggested a modification of the present presidential system to
curtail presidential excesses, and importantly, create greater overlap
and affinity between the executive and the legislative arms of
government.
“To this end, a hybrid of both the presidential and parliamentary
systems will go a long way in keeping the presidency in check, while
also reaping the benefits inherent in presidential system.”
He advocated such modification as the introduction of `Question Time’
in the parliament to hold the ministers consistently accountable and
the replacement of impeachment with a procedure for vote of
no-confidence, among others.
He called for measures to check imperial presidency in Africa and the
excesses of many leaders who are allegedly tyrannical and abusive as
the military and civilian despots they criticised and replaced.
Mr. Ekweremadu also said that Nigeria is better as a united country and should not be dismembered.
There have been agitations, particularly by a separatist group, IPOB,
that a sovereign country of Biafra made up of ethic Igbos be excised
from Nigeria.
Although Mr. Ekweremadu is Igbo, he rejected such calls.
He said, “Nigeria does not require to be fragmented at this time.
There is joy in being together. There is benefit in being together.
“There is advantage that is conferred on us as a country by our large
population. What we need is giving everybody a sense of belonging and
ensuring good governance.”
Mr. Ekweremadu, however, stressed the need for the country to be
restructured from the current over-concentration of power at the centre,
which was non-responsive to the citizenry.
“The central government that once appeared necessary and beneficent
has compromised, even jeopardised its standing by perceived
highhandedness, unfair treatment of some ethnic groups and abuse of
power.
“The powerful central government has made citizens vulnerable to
bureaucratic manipulation and control and left them powerless, and
reminded them at every turn that the promise of self-government has been
eroded.
“Nigeria, and indeed African constitutions, should espouse federalism characterised by weak centres and strong federating units.
“Currently, Nigeria has a very powerful centre, hence the need for devolution of powers.”
Mr. Ekweremadu stressed that a restructured Nigeria would be in the
best interest of everyone as each geo-political zone would maximise its
potentialities.
“If we start this process, it will assure the agitators that there is hope for a better Nigeria.
“We must continue to assure that the best way to go is restructuring, not dismemberment of the country.”
According to him, no argument that is both coherent and respectable
can be made to support the continued emasculation of the component
states by the centre.
“For example, the North will be a net exporter of solar energy and
agricultural products while the West will be the hub of banking and
information technology.
“The East will be the hub of industrial manufacturing and scientific
innovations while the Middle Belt will be the hub of solid minerals
development and tourism.
“The South-South will be the oil and gas hub as well as shipping.
When this happens, there will be less pressure on the federal
government.
“The zones will be the centres of development, the rush to Abuja will
cease and the country will be able to realise its potential,” he said.
Mr. Ekweremadu called for a new constitution in Nigeria to replace
the military-imposed document as had been done by Kenya, Zimbabwe and
Brazil.
He said while most African constitutions provided only for
amendments, not replacements, existing constitutions could be amended to
make provisions for new constitutions and referendums.
(NAN)