President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been tasked to enforce separation of powers in his administration to ensure Nigeria’s democracy is in tandem with that of America’s democratic system.
Calling on the president to set Nigeria as good example to other African countries, a Niger Delta human rights activist and CEO, Centre for Peace and Environmental Justice, CEPEJ, Comrade Sheriff Mulade, in an interactive session with The Vanguard, yesterday, noted that the time for action was now.
He buttressed his point that Nigeria’s democratic system was unfortunate in the sense that, the system was laced with flaws and negates that of the nation from which we copied it.
He said: “It’s so unfortunate that we are practicing a democracy that we claimed to have copied from the United States of America, USA, what we’re practicing here is a reverse case.
“In a true democracy, we’re made to understand that the three arms of government, namely, the executive, legislature and judiciary are independent of one another. But here in Nigeria, the opposite is the case as the executive becomes a demi-god lording over others as it just played out at the election of the leadership of the National Assembly.
“It’s an aberration for the president of the nation to appoint judicial officers and influence leadership of the legislature in a democratic setting. I urge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to correct this aberration and not to tow the line of this bad precedence.
“As the adage goes, he that pays the piper dictates the tune and that’s what is happening to the judiciary and the legislature in our country.
“I call on Mr President to change this unconstitutional norm and set Nigeria as good example for other African countries because Nigerians are losing hope in both the judiciary and legislature that are fast becoming lame ducks in the hands of the executive”.
