By Hon. Josef Omorotionmwan
But it soon dawned on us that we had surpassed the boiling point in all things and there was no next level to attain. What next level did we have in mind – next level of impunity, next level of election violence, next level of corruption, next level of legislative and judicial rascality, or whatever next level, all in utter contravention of what we call a Constitution? Indeed, every assessment has tested negative for any next level on the constitution. Alexander Pope (1688-1744) remains relevant: “For forms of government let fools contest. That which is best administered is best”. We are almost constrained to argue that even without a constitution – written or unwritten, parliamentary or presidential or any form whatsoever – Nigeria will not be any worse than it already is! Nigeria has been a bundle of wasted generations.
Nigerians are peculiar people – peculiar in every respect. At a point, we began to harp on the next level in everything. That was when some thought that the time had come to move to the next level of our constitution.
But it soon dawned on us that we had surpassed the boiling point in all things and there was no next level to attain. What next level did we have in mind – next level of impunity, next level of election violence, next level of corruption, next level of legislative and judicial rascality, or whatever next level, all in utter contravention of what we call a Constitution? Indeed, every assessment has tested negative for any next level on the constitution.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) remains relevant: “For forms of government let fools contest. That which is best administered is best”. We are almost constrained to argue that even without a constitution – written or unwritten, parliamentary or presidential or any form whatsoever – Nigeria will not be any worse than it already is! Nigeria has been a bundle of wasted generations.
We find nothing wrong in importing for ourselves, ideas that have worked in other climes. What has remained difficult has been getting the imported ideas to work for us here. This is where we find partial importation wrong. Next time around, we may have to import the ideas and the people to come and implement them for us. If the situation warrants, there is nothing wrong in treating men like machines.
At the inception of the Second Republic in 1979, we rolled out the drums in celebration of our introduction of the American presidential system of government after we had bastardized the Westminster model we inherited from our departing British colonial masters at independence in 1960.
Those of the older generation who are calling for Nigeria’s return to that parliamentary model must either have very short memories, or they could belong to the few who benefited from that system.
That was the era in which government contractors signed contract agreement with their toe-prints in places where finger-prints were required. That was an era where elections couldn’t have been any different from an Armageddon.
That was the Nigerian version of a system that had worked for Britain for centuries. Essentially, the fault has not been in the system but in us. Who still wants to return to that bastardized system?
During our undergraduate years, in Pol. Science 101, we were dealing with the issue of Lame Duck. In an Election Year in the US, general elections are normally held in the first week of November; but the incoming president does not get sworn-in until around 20th January of the following year.
This writer expressed the fear that during the three months interregnum, a lame duck could steal the country blind. The Americans were, however, unanimous on the fact that anybody who took one cent that did not belong to him would go to prison. That’s their system – a system that we lifted wholesale to Nigeria.
Yet, in State after State here, State Governors emerge richer than the state they governed. They end up writing themselves into the state pension laws to the collecting humongous pension for the rest of their lives; and they them migrate to the Senate to continue their escapades.
At the early stage, the political actors had not been properly schooled in the act of looting, hence the Strongman Abaca scattered his own loots all over the bus stops in Europe. Looting has since been taken to the next level.
Former President of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, once visited his Nigerian counterpart, and after he was taken round the farm holdings of the Nigerian leader, Nyerere summed up his impression this way; “All these cannot be for one man in one life time”.
Pension Administrator John Yakubu, once wondered why people were surprised at him “when he stole only N23 billion.” Of course, that fritters into total insignificance in the face of Maina’s N200 billion alleged haul. The list is endless. And that is how we have bastardized a presidential system that had worked for America over the centuries.
What have we not tried? Even the military dictatorship that has worked in some other climes has been hopelessly flunked in Nigeria.
Look at our elections. Which World War could be worse than these? In the US, on Election Day, Citizen Joe could take about 15 minutes off work to go and exercise his franchise. He quickly returns to start his work. But here, every election – even the local Government one to pick councilors – is war by another name.
Who is still talking about the rule of law? In other climes if you disobey a court order or any law for that matter, you go to jail but here, even at the highest level, so-called, selective enforcement is the order of the day.
We are unable to conclude that what we have is the worst because we do not know what obtains in the animal kingdom. All the same, the little we can see is nauseating enough; and an end is not in sight. Where do we go from here?
Hon. Josef Omorotionmwan is a public affairs analyst and former Chairman, Board of Directors, Edo Broadcasting Service. He can be reached at: joligien@yahoo.com
