By Ejiro Nesisa
A legal luminary and great academic, Prof. Mike Ozekhome said Nigeria would regain its lost glory and have rapid development if the country returns to parliamentary or regional government of the yester years. Prof. Ozekhome stated this today, (Tuesday) when he was delivering a lecture at Wellmann Group Colloquium at the celebration of 20 years of operational excellence -2004-2024 held at Monarchy in Effurun, Uvwie LGA, Delta State.
Speaking on the topic titled: “Finding A System Of Government That Works” in a programme which is themed:” The Coast To Coast X – Ray Of The Nigerian Project: What Panacea?”, Prof. Ozekhome recounted years ago when the country had regional government that has its resources and developed at its space adding that, at that time, there was speedy growth and development of different regions of the country.
According to him, the presidential system which Nigeria currently practises can not make headway for the country adding that, in the alternative to regional government, there should be parliamentary systems of government which also gives rooms for the people to remove the Prime Minister by passing of no confidence on him if he fails to meet with the yearnings of the people. He said, there is too much waste of resources in the presidential system of government as there exists the Senate and the House of representatives. He said, these two chambers of the government are what drain the coffers of the country as money which ought to have been used to develop the country goes to legislators’ private pockets.
He said, if the country must move forward, the Constitution must be rewritten to squash either the Senate or the House of Representatives to enable the country maintain one chamber and uses the money generated in the country judiciously. His words:” Nigeria goes nowhere if we continue with this presidential system of government. There is too expenses. We have to practise parliamentary or the same presidential but cut down the cost of governance (expenses) by letting one of the two chambers go”. He said there is no unity in the country as there is too much religious bigotry, selection, and other divisiveness yet, Nigerians claim to be one.
Prof. Ozekhome who made references to other countries of the world such as Singapore, Hong Kong, United States of America among others that progress because they play down on ethnicity said, the country needs a true National Assembly that have the governed at heart. According to him, with good National Assembly, they would be able to make legislations to the benefits of the people.
Prof. Ozekhome said the country lacks a good judiciary system. According to him, if the country has good judiciary system with good judges that can deliver impartial judgement, things would be better for it. He said, at present, the country is not actually practising democracy but practises what he called ‘selectocracy” and others.
He said if the government can ameliorate the sufferings of the people by bringing about good policies, the hunger in the land would be a thing of the past. His words:” If government can muster courage, make good policies and stop the hunger among the people, the people would be happy. We don’t have other country. Nigeria is a great country among the countries of the world. If we can realize ourselves, we can actualize our dreams’
On her part, Dr. Henrietta Onwuegbuzie who spoke on entrepreneurship, said one of the challenges Africans, especially Nigerians have is not over population but lack of creativity. According to her, in Nigeria, many graduates are job seekers instead of job creators. She said the knowledge acquired should be used to create job for the people not to be looking for jobs. Her words:“We churn out graduates from the Universities every year. We should be job creators instead of job seekers. The market women who are not educated make millions of money whereas you as a graduate from the University, are contented with N50,000 you are paid in place of work at the end of the month. Why can’t we use our talents to create jobs?” Dr. Onwuegbuzie therefore called on all and sundry for rise to the occasion to add value to the society through their creativity especially graduates.