Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports
A Catholic organization operating under the aegis of the Justice Development and Peace Initiative (JDPI) has lamented Nigerians’ excessive focus on the presidential campaign at the detriment of other issues as the general election for 2023 draws near.
According to JDPI, the system was flawed and abnormal because too much attention is being paid to the presidential aspirations of the former vice president Atiku Abubakar, the former governor of Lagos State Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the former governor of Anambra State Peter Obi.
At a political forum yesterday in Ado Ekiti, the JDPI Director of the Catholic Diocese of Ekiti, Reverend Father Emmanuel Akingbade, said the country’s current political circumstances supported the idea that the subnational is weak and not important like the presidency.
Akingbade expressed regret that Nigerians are no longer discussing the upcoming elections for governor, national, and state assemblies, which will take place concurrently with the presidential election. He claimed that no nation could advance under the current flawed system.
He says that “our own genre of democracy is terribly flawed and frail. If you look at commentators all around the country, they are all about Tinubu, Atiku, and Obi’s bids for the presidency; nobody is talking about the elections for governor and for the federal and state legislatures.
“This showed that we have a government that is administered by the president, for the president, and for the people. The president is the center of attention. The president is the one who thinks for us, not the people as a whole. Everyone needs to focus on what he desires.
Even the National Assembly, which is meant to establish checks and balances, is ineffective. The president had an impact on who would lead the two branches of the National Assembly.
You could see that, despite having the constitutional authority to veto him, President Muhammadu Buhari withheld his consent when the National Assembly handed the modified Electoral Law for his signature.
“The president appoints the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chief Justice, and the President of the Senate. After approval by the National Judicial Council, he names the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) (NJC).
The weakness of the subnationals (the states) is sad. The president is also dependent upon the governors, who are tasked with serving as the presidents of their states and ensuring the growth, security, and prosperity of the populace.
The lesson here is that progress is impossible when one branch of government is more powerful than the other, and that is what is hurting Nigeria as a nation.
In order to be able to promote prosperity at the grassroots, Akingbade pleaded with decision-makers to reorganize the system and make sure that the state, local, and all other branches of government are really independent.
