Chief Robert Clarke is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). In this interview, he speaks on the need for Nigeria to return to the parliamentary system of government, Edo State governorship election, among others. JOY ANIGBOGU brings the excerpt:
As Nigeria celebrates the 64th Independence Anniversary, where did we get it right and where did you get it wrong with some Nigerians saying we should amend the constitution to abandon this presidential system of government, is the problem with Nigeriaa system of government or something else?
I have consistently maintained in all statements I made that the present set of governance in Nigeriais the problem we have in Nigeria. The governance we are enjoying now is the governance that enriches the pockets of the elites and makes us who are not elites suffer. Nigeria had the benefit of pre-independence to have a system of governancethat was based on the parliamentary system of the colonial government. That system enables the regional component of Nigeria to grow up at their own pace, to develop at their own pace and to do many other things at their own pace. However, though to the military incursion and of course, the military was based on the unitary systemand the fact that the last order must be obeyed, tended to change the system of governancein Nigeria from the parliamentary system to what we now have as a presidential system. The presidential systemnow took into consideration several states that were not in existence during the parliamentary system. However, with the states coming up, many young Nigerians who had no experience of governance, who were brought in by this new presidential systemfound themselves in governance, in charge of money, in charge of authorities and charge of everything, and it all went into their heads. Nigeria discovered that when it was changing into the presidentialsystem of governance, we had young boys who were into government, I wouldn’t call them agents of the military dictatorship they were young boys who were given money and many other things which they lacked before. Now how have we survived this period? I used the word survive because this period of the parliamentary systemand the dichotomy between the parliamentary systemand the presidential system is so wide apart. After all, a governor today under the presidential system is like a dictator. Let us be honest, you may not say it that way that he’s a dictator but the powers being exercised by the governors in the states, make them dictators of a sort. Now, what about the development side of it, we became Nigerians who wanted to know more about ourselves and we became Nigerians who wanted to develop ourselves but unfortunately, we were bringing up a leadership that couldn’t cope with the present state of things. We now have a leadership that is so myopic, concentrated only on the ideas of the selfishness of what they can get for themselves, their families or at a later stage the states in which they are governors. The governance system inNigeria has to be revisited. Do we go back to the old systemparliamentary system or do we continue with this system of governance where only very few Nigerians are enjoying the benefits of democracy? Instead, Nigeria is now wearing the toga of armed banditry, kidnapping and so many other things, and joining it with all the other problems we have. No wonder in Nigeriatoday, we cannot hold a single election that would be declared free and fair by the majority of those who participated in it. It is difficult to have free and fair election but when you look at the laws governing how we elect our officials, the law that empowers the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to look after the affairs of whatever happens to the political parties, you’ll find out that we’re not moving forward.
Would you say we have a challenge in thesystem of governanceor perhaps the challenge with the character of the political class and how do we improve the quality of leadership we have in Nigeria?
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We need to change the system. For instance, I’m saying now that maybe we need to begin to have independent candidates because where a systemof governance is dictated by a small circle of 20 or 30 party members, who will sit down and determine who is going to be the next governor and who has to be the next Speaker. All these things are being determined by the political class by themselves and not by the people. That systemis what we’re doing today. The political system in Nigeria today is very faulty. Faulty in the sense that it has shifted back from the people’s hands into a class of people and before you can get into that class, you might have spent a lot of money. Therefore, money is the number one problem that we have. To be in a class of the system that would improve the life of a common man, you would spend a lot of money and when you get there, the first thing you want to do is to recover the money you have spent. And then Nigeria finds itself moving in one circle and one circle alone. The common man is not getting the benefits of democracy, the rich are getting richer and the politicians are dominating in all aspects of our lives. So, we have to improve the system of governance. Number one, we have to allow for independent candidates to fit into our system of governance because if we allow the parties to dictate, the parties will meet in the board rooms and those of us outside the board rooms will not have a say in what goes on. So, my view is that Nigeriashould change itssystem of governance. What do I mean by that, should we go back to the old system, do we continue with the present presidential system? With due respect to anybody who has a different idea is that we should go back to the parliamentary system where anybody who does anything can be accounted to the people on the floor of the House. The Prime Minister can be examined, and the President can be examined on the floor of the House and can be taken care of there, not the party forming a caucus and making decisions on behalf of the people.
What is your take on the recently concluded Edo State governorship election and what is the way forward considering the incidents that happened between 1963 and 1966?
There is no way forward because all that we are saying about corruption right from Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Ladoke Akintola’s time is still happening in our society today, which shows you that we’re not moving forward. So, what you see in the Edo State governorship election, I wasn’t an observer and therefore I cannot say much about what happened in Edo, I can only speak on what I see and what I hear. So, you will permit me not to speak on the Edo election because I didn’t see much of what happened there but the much I can hear is many disgruntled elements bringing out many facts about the election and I don’t want to be part of analyzing an election which I didn’t know anything about. Now, Nigeria has a problem and the problem of Nigeria today is Nigerians ourselves. We’re the crocks, we’re the thieves, we’re the leaders and everything. Nigeria is a nation where anything goes. Where can you see in the world today with the rate of hunger in Nigeria and yet people are suffering and smiling? Where in the world can you see the percentage of goods that come in overnight will catapult when you get to the market the following day and there is an inflation of almost 20 per cent on an item? Many things are wrong in Nigeria but the most important thing is that most of these wrong things in Nigeria are being done by the politicians. And I don’t blame anybody because politicians in Nigeriatoday are the only ones who have money to throw around and cause confusion or do something better but most times they use their money to confuse. So, please permit me not to talk about the Edo election. Edo is a mini Nigeria and whatever happens in Edo State happens in all other states in Nigeria. There is no state in Nigeria where there is no thuggery. There is no state in Nigeriawhere we have not seen what Senator Adams Oshiomhole did in Edo, which we are blaming on many other things that are not happening in any other state in Nigeria. We are all the same. I’m sorry to say, let us change this system of our governance. Let us have today a better political set-up that would allow parties not to have much power they have over the individuals. Let us have an independent candidate. Let us allow our local governments to carry on as if it is a Nigerian mandate not a party mandate. I can assure you that we have the potential and Nigeria has the best potential in the world to grow up.
In changing the system of governancewhat about values and institutions?
No country can develop without strengthening the system of governance. Nigeriawould not allow such a situation to happen because our system of governance pays too much premium on leadership. For instance, calling the governor, Your Excellency, therefore, the common man who can come in and say something and dame any leader within the party for opposing him will find out that the system will not give him all that privilege. Institutions are the backbone of governance. We are not encouraging our institutions to thrive at all and if we don’t do that Nigeria will not grow. We have to grow institutions for the country to grow because Nigeria is sliding backwards even with all the detriment of hunger and many other things happening inNigeria. I doubt whether we scale over all the loans we have gone to get and we come back to real life whether we learn any lesson. We are not restructuring to learn lessons. We are restructuring to make money and when we make the money I doubt whether we will restructure ourselves to know how to build a nation.
