Nigeria should revert to the less expensive parliamentary system of government —Senator Farunkanmi

Senator Olorunnimbe Farunkanmi was a senator in the second Republic under the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) but now he is the chairman, Elders Forum of the Ondo state All Progressive Congress (APC). In this interview with AYODELE ADESANMI, he contended that presidential system of government as being practiced today in the country is expensive and advocated for the parliamentary system of government among other issues.

The issues of vote buying and other electoral offences are obstacles to the smooth running of successful elections in the country, what do think should be done to eliminate such practices?

There is no doubt that democracy remains the most formidable means of forming viable government in the world today. Therefore in a viable democratic election, voters and the conductors should be honest, credible and transparent. Doing this will result in the formation of a viable democratic government as you find in many parts of the developed countries of the world. But it is unfortunate that many countries still resort to dishonest ways of conducting their elections through many rigging methods among which is vote buying. The numerous election malpractices identified in this country should be discontinued. All the government agencies and security bodies should rally round THE Independent National Electoral commission ( INEC), the conductors of our elections, and give them maximum support to eradicate all forms of election malpractices. All forms of malpractices including vote-buying should be permanently eliminated. Many political parties spend funds to buy votes at the election venues, but this is most undesirable and should be discontinued

Restructuring has always been embraced by many politicians and it seems they are not paying lip service to it?

The issue of restructuring as being mentioned by the politicians is not easy to explain because the restructuring has many different formats such as physical, social and economic restructuring. Restructuring may have to do with the creation of new states or merger of existing ones, since most of them are not viable as they are too expensive to run. An important form of restructuring to me is bringing about a change in the form of government as being practiced in Nigeria today. The Nigeria nation used to practice the parliamentary system of government in the past. Then the legislative duties were performed on part time basis. But we suddenly changed this to the presidential system which is expensive. Honestly Nigeria should revert to the less expensive parliamentary system of government because the legislators perform their duties on part time basis. We must take note of the fact that the essence of government is to advance the welfare of the people through the provisions of essential facilities for the comfort of the populace such as the provisions of viable road networks, water, electricity, industries, good education needs and other essential infrastructures among others. But today the practice of the presidential system of government has resulted in the large scale of poverty ravaging the country. The presidential system of government has consumed the large chunk of our resources derived from oil and other mineral resources and this has not been to the benefit of the people.

• APC, PDP: Two sides of a coin

There is no doubt that many politicians love the presidential system of government as they remain the singular beneficiary of that system. The parliamentary system of government should be reverted to so that the welfare of our people can be improved upon.

The Independent National Electoral Commission seems slow in the preparation for the forthcoming 2019 national elections, can the electoral body meet up preparations?

The obstacle put in the way of the success of the 2019 National Elections is the late approval of the budget by the National Assembly. However now that  the money has been approved things must move fast but the late approval of the budget was part of the repercussions of the failure of the leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) who are supposed to supervise the affairs of the party right from the beginning immediately after  winning the 2015 election. It seems most of the legislators have run the National Assembly against the interest of the APC. The APC under the leadership of President Buhari must find all possible means to find the funds with which INEC should be able to successful conduct the elections.

Defection of politicians from one party to another is common nowadays, how can such movement be minimized?

In the past politics are run on serious ideological basis, but is not so nowadays as numerous politicians move from one party to other in search of material benefits. Most political parties in Nigeria today just constitute themselves into a group of friends in search of wealth through the formation of political parties; this explains why out of about fifty political parties that are registered; only few are viable. The INEC that is suppose to run election must ensure that rabble rousers are not registered as political parties, but only seriously minded political parties with ideological beliefs are registered. However in Nigeria today, there are over one hundred political parties registered by the Electoral Body, (INEC) and these are formed by groups of friends without any ideological orientation. Many of them are not known beyond the group of friends that put them together, hence there is no way they can campaign to convince voters. Such registered political parties only complicate the problems of the Electoral body who will go to printers to print their emblems and the photographs of the contestant. So also are the uneducated voters on the election days when they have to search numerous pages looking for the candidate of their choice. INEC as the electoral body should not permit unviable and irresponsible groups to register political parties that would not only complicate their electoral assignments but also hinder the electors performing their duties without problem. When politicians perform well in one position, there is nothing wrong if the electorates vote such a person into a higher position. But it is becoming the practice for governors who have spent two terms as State Governors to advance into the Senate. Some average politician thinks of only himself and his party, whereas they should think of the good of his people and how he could serve selflessly and provide the dividends of democracy for them. Some politicians think of only themselves showing an insatiable appetite to remain in political position. Many Governor, Senators, House of Representative members and so on are eager to recycle themselves without considering what the people want, politicians must strive hard to add value to governance.