Aregbesola Advocates Return To Parliamentary System Of Government

aregbesolaGovernor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State has advocated a return to parliamentary system of government, saying it will be in the best interest of the country and Nigerians. He argued that the Nigerian political environment was not yet mature for a presidential system of government.

He made this position known at the inauguration of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Legislative Building in Amuwo Odofin Local Government Secretariat on Monday.

According to the governor, the best form of government for all nascent democracies is a parliamentary system of government because the presidential system of government, which Nigeria is practicing, has a high tendency to breed dictatorship. He likened the president of Nigeria to a demigod, who is over and above everyone and everything.

He further stated that the excessive power of the president was the reason behind the desperation of politicians to acquire and hold on to power at all cost.

He said, “I am a strong opponent of the presidential system of government, particularly in an immature political environment like ours. There is a very high tendency for absolutism to develop in a presidential system of government.

“The best form of government for all nascent democracies is the parliamentary system of government because the legitimacy of the government in a parliamentary system is in the House (legislature), not elsewhere like we have in Nigeria.

“That is why we are battling with an imperial presidency in Nigeria. The president of Nigeria, by the provisions of the constitution, is a demigod. There is nothing beyond him. This explains the desperation to hold on to the power of the presidency and the desperation to get that power from whoever is holding it, is beyond human comprehension, which should not be the case.

“To break free from the mess that we have found ourselves, one of the things we must do is to revert to the parliamentary system of government where power resides absolutely with the legislature”.

The governor noted that he took part in the inauguration of the legislative building because it was his way of advocating the return to the parliamentary system of government.

Earlier in his speech, the chairman, Amuwo Odofin Local Government, Ayodele Akinwale, called for more women participation in politics, noting that half of his cabinet comprised of women – a development he said, though, not deliberate, but because they were eminently qualified for such positions.

“By the Grace of God, at the expiration of the next administration at the federal level, which will be formed by the All Progressives Congress, the women, if they mobilise properly, can take over the reins of affairs in this country because they are many”, he said.