Excessive Attentions on Tinubu, Atiku, Obi Signposts Defective System, Says Catholic Body

Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

As the 2023 general election approaches, a Catholic body under the auspices of the Justice Development and Peace Initiative (JDPI) has bemoaned over- concentrations of attentions by Nigerians on only the presidential race at the expense of others.

JDPI said the fact that excessive attentions are being concentrated on the presidential ambitions of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar;  former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and former-Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, indicated that the system was defective and abnormal.

The JDPI Director, Catholic Diocese of Ekiti, Reverend Father Emmanuel Akingbade, who stated this at a political forum in Ado Ekiti yesterday, said the present political situations in the country buttressed the point that the subnational is weak and not relevant like the presidency.

Akingbade regretted that Nigerians are no longer speaking about governorship, national and state assemblies elections that will be held alongside the presidential election, saying no country could develop under the present defective arrangement.

According to him, “Our own genre of democracy is very defective and weak. If you check commentaries across the country,  all are about the presidential ambitions of Tinubu, Atiku and Obi; and nobody is talking about the governorship, federal and state assemblies elections.

“This depicted that we are running a government of the president, by the president, for the masses. Everything revolves around the president. Rather than for the masses to think for the president, he is the one thinking for us. It is what he wants that everybody must key into.

“Even the National Assembly that is supposed to bring in checks and balances is also weak. The leaderships of the two arms of the National Assembly were influenced into positions by the president.

“You could see that when the National Assembly presented the amended  Electoral Law for presidential assent, President Muhammadu Buhari withheld assent, and they could not go ahead to veto him despite being vested with the constitutional power.

“It is the president that determines who becomes the Senate President; Speaker of the House of Representatives, and even the head of Judiciary. He appoints the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) after ratification by the National Judicial Council (NJC).

“It is sad that the subnationals (the states) are weak. The governors, who are supposed to be presidents of their states and ensure development, security and prosperity for the people are also depending on the president.

“The lesson from this is that development can’t be witnessed when one arm of government is stronger than the other and that is what is negatively affecting Nigeria as a country.”

Akingbade appealed to policy makers to rearrange the system and ensure that the state and local government and all arms of government are truly independent, to be able to drive prosperity at the grassroots.