Senator Ndume seeks return to parliamentary government

Prominent Nigerians were unanimous in their diagnosis of the fundamental problem stunting growth and development of the nation.

At a birthday colloquium organised in honour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Borno South senatorial candidate in last general elections, Kudla Satumari who clocked 50 at the weekend, they demanded a review of the nation’s constitution.

Senator representing Borno South and chairman Senate Committee on Army, Ali Ndume said only a return to the Parliamentary system as practised in the first republic would bring governance closer to the people as he noted that unlike the subsisting presidential system it was cost-effective.

Nigerian Tribune reports that the lawmaker warned that Nigeria was at the verge of collapse.

He said: ”One of the problems of the 1999 Constitution is the Presidential system of government it recommended for the country which is too costly.

“Parliamentary system of government would have been better in terms of good governance for the citizenry as experienced in the first republic.

”Presidential system of government as being practised since 1999 through constitutional provisions, makes democracy too costly in Nigeria, governance centralised and politicians in a tight corner of between what is good and what is bad.

”If I have the opportunity of coming back to this world and particularly Nigeria, I will not be a politician because being a politician in Nigeria is like testing positive to HIV with consequences of knowing how to live with it:”

He further congratulated Satumari for losing the last National Assembly elections to him as he claimed that it has helped to insulate the PDP chieftain from the intrigues and backstabbing of politicians.

”I congratulate you for losing that election to me by not getting contaminated in any way. Please continue with your humanity – driven philanthropy.”

In their individual paper presentations, former Aviation Minister, Fani Kayode, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, Dr Obadiah Mailafia and Senior Fellow, Centre for Democracy and Development, Professor Jibril Ibrahim, fingered what they perceived as structural defects in the constitution for the poor leadership delivering facing the nation.

Mailafia said: “Though as clearly stated in the motto of the country, ‘unity and faith, peace and progress’ are what we need in the county but due to self – inflicted systemic dysfunctions, none of the four has been achieved and can be achieved with the dysfunctional problems which had killed the Nigeria of our dream.

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”The very reason we need to address the defective system by way of making Nigeria a federation in the true sense of the concept which can never be achieved under the present constitution that foisted a Unitarised federation on Nigerians.

”The 1999 constitution must be re-engineered and the country must be restructured for good governance to take place anchored on national productivity, equity, justice and peace.”

Professor Ibrahim called for a new constitution that will inspire a sense of belonging and justice among the federating states.

According to him, the 1999 constitution going by provisions of the third schedule, encouraged sharing and distribution as against contribution, driven by productivity from the bottom to the top as obtainable in other federations of the world.

”There is injustice in the land as against justice, violence as against peace, insecurity as against security, all translating into bad governance as against good governance.

”The Nigeria system is not working for the good of Nigerians and must be critically looked into by way of development driven and workable constitution.”

Fani Kayode raised the alarm over what he called the growing resurgence of ethnic nationalism and agitation for self-determination.

Kudla Satumari in his remarks said the motto of Nigeria was chosen as the theme of the colloquium as a way of discussing the problems afflicting the country and finding lasting solutions to them.