There is joy in being together - Ekweremadu rejects Biafra, speaks about Nigeria’s presidency

macfranc007 October 10, 2017 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Omotayo Yusuf

- Ike Ekweremadu advocated for a single five or six year term for Nigeria's presidency

- The deputy Senate president said Nigeria was better as one country

- He called on African countries to learn from failures of other democracies

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, October 10.

NAN reports event was organised by the Centre for Media and Peace Initiatives, a New York-based international NGO to mark its 10th anniversary.

He said: “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.

“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.”

“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.

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.”

"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.

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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.

Meanwhile, Junaid Mohammed, a staunch critic of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, alleged that the Igbos are using the agitation for Biafra to blackmail the north into giving up the 2019 presidency to them, The Sun reports.

He insisted that the move will only prevent the southeast from producing a president because, “democracy is a game of numbers.”

Does the Biafra struggle end if IPOB is dissolved? - on NAIJ.com TV