The senator representing the Ondo North Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Dr. Bode Olajumoke, in this interview in Akure with journalists, including SUNDAY ABORISADE, speaks on the recent defection of his colleagues from the Peoples Democratic Party to other parties
What is the problem with the amended 1999 Constitution?
You will recall that only penultimate week, there was a judgement, which was at the instance of the suit filed by the former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, as to the argument over whether there was a need for the assent of the nation’s President as stipulated by the constitution. The position of the National Assembly is that since we are the representatives of the people, two-thirds of the National Assembly, and also, two-thirds of the state assemblies carried out the amendments. So, the National Assembly believes that it is odd to subject those amendments to the consent of one person, that is the President of the federal republic. Second, where we borrowed our system from, that is the American presidential system, you don’t need the assent of the president after such amendments. My learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria went to court and challenged the position of the National Assembly, but the judgement upheld the challenge. However, there is a bit of confusion because, as it is now, and with its inherent implication, we are talking of an election in April and within the time frame of 150 days. Except something drastic is done, we might be having a big problem in our hands as a nation.
What is the way out?
It will be subjudice to comment on a case that is in court. As senators, we have rubbed minds on it and I believe that at the end of the day, we will have a solution. Several times in this country we have got to a point that a crisis that could even change the democratic process was almost inevitable, but we still got out of it and this might not be an exception. I am so confident that there would be a solution at the end of the day.
People believe that a way of ensuring free and fair elections is when political offices are made less attractive; do you believe in this line of thought?
It appals me to see the extent of struggle for elective positions in this country and a school of thought believes that if we make these offices less attractive, we might have less people struggling to contest. So, it might be a way of discouraging a do-or-die contest. I believe that there is a need for the re-orientation of Nigerians. It should start from a review of our curriculum in schools (from primary to secondary) and then to tertiary institutions. We must have a rebirth in Nigeria. Children should be taught not to attach too much importance to money because the level at which people struggle to make money at all costs is highly disturbing and this is affecting our democratic process negatively. We must have a Nigeria that appreciates the basic values of life. We should uphold the basic ethics of a civilised society. Until we imbibe these basic rudiments of a civilised society, the urge by people to seek elective positions in order to make money will continue and we need to discourage this as fast as possible so that we can guarantee free and fair elections and quality leadership.
Don’t you think that the planned takeover of the President’s inauguration by the National Assembly is unnecessary?
No, we have a system that we have copied from somewhere and the rudiments of the system must be completely imbibed. In a way, we are saying that the inauguration of the President is the responsibility of the people that elected them into office. The current practice has removed the people from that inauguration. The representatives of the people are not allowed to play a major role in the inauguration. However, in America where we copied our system from, it is the parliament that carries out the inauguration of the president. It is the speaker of the house that carries out the arrangement. I think it makes a bit of sense to me that being the representatives of the people, they should inaugurate the president, who is also the symbol of the people.
You once advocated a benevolent dictatorship in our democratic arrangement, and your position attracted much criticisms. Are you still holding on to that view?
Read More:http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art2010112011414915
No comments:
Post a Comment