By Patrick Wemambu
George Ehusani, a Catholic priest, has insisted that Nigeria as presently constituted is not working for majority of its citizenry, even as he observed that the basis for existence of the people is mutual respect of the various religious, ethnic and cultural diversities.
Speaking as a guest at the policy dialogue titled “Is it time to change to parliamentary system” organized by the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought on recently in Abuja, the cleric threw his weight behind the clamors for return to parliamentary system.
“It took several years for the founding fathers to negotiate the kind of Constitution that we had in 1960 and 1963 and the military guys came in 1966 and changed it all with no negotiation. We need to return to negotiation if we are to have peace. The 1979 Constitution has vested too much power in the center and emasculated the federating units. There is widespread call today that we dust up the 1963 Constitution and amend it for our present-day circumstances … that we go back to embrace the parliamentary system,” he added.
Taking a swipe at the ruling class, the Catholic priest regretted that the poor leadership traits of the elitist group in question was capable of ruining any nation no matter how perfect the political structure and governance blueprint they adopt.
“Essential and of critical importance in the process of nation-building is a transparently honest, visionary, self-sacrificing and therefore legitimate and credible leadership. Such leadership assumes the role of architects, engineers and project managers of the emerging nation … When such values are missing, what we often have is a free-for-all intractable conflicts from Maiduguri to Yenagoa and from Ondo to Benue; monumental corruption…
Commenting on the Oronsaye Report, the cleric agreed that there was need to cut down on the cost of governance by pruning the number of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government. But he wondered how applicable the document would be 12 years after submission with creation of additional MDAs totaling about 600. For Nigeria to be saved (and working again), Ehusani recommended measures which he described as ‘massive, fundamental, not superficial and far-reaching.’
He summarized the required changes under 3 broad themes; Rule of law, Equal citizenship and Self-determination or what has been described as Devolution of powers.
