A Political Science scholar, Prof. Micheal Oni, has said that all the civilian presidents and vice-presidents the country has produced since independence are beneficiaries of electoral fraud.
The don listed the administrations of Shehu Shagari, Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’ Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari as direct profiteers of electoral violence and manipulations in the country.
The professor of research methodology and Nigerian government said this during the 31st inaugural lecture of the Babcock University, Ilishan in Ogun State.
Speaking on the topic, “Conception and misconceptions of majoritarian democracy and election in Nigeria,” Oni insisted that violence and manipulations had remained part of Nigeria’s politics because political leaders were supporting it.
He further said it would be difficult for the country to have electoral offences tribunal that would ensure a free, fair and credible election in the country because the leaders were benefiting from electoral violence and manipulations.
Oni traced the political problems in the country to the importation of westernized democratic system of government without due consideration to the peculiarity of the environment of operation.
He called for the legislation of six years single term for every political office holder in the country either at the federal or state level.
He explained that the adoption of a six year-single term would help in minimizing re-election acrimonious and hasten power rotation among different ethnic groups.
Oni further advocated a legislation of a two-party system so as to help in mitigation of ethnicity and religious polarities in Nigerian politics.
He said, “I wish to conclude here that democracy can be government of the people by the people and for the people in Nigeria only if it promotes politics of inclusion, accommodation, equity, fairness in power distribution and sharing among the competing ethnic groups and geo-political zones in Nigeria.
“Our democracy should be where both the majority and minority rule interchangeably in turns.
“Majoritarian democracy as being practised presently, will promote politics of exclusiveness and domination by a section at the federal, state and local government level.
“Until Nigeria takes into cognisance its environmental peculiarities, our search for majoritarian democracy will continue to be the period to kill, maim, and make widows and widowers in Nigerian politics.”
