By Victor Okenini

THERE are several issues that we need to settle or resolve before the next general elections in 2011. These issues are so complicated to an extent that they could be likened to a time bomb that is ready to explode and wrench havoc on it’s victims who are Nigerians.

No doubt, President Umaru Yar-Adua is a refined gentleman per-excellence and his democratic credentials are impeccable. The only snag or short coming on his past is his health challenges that he is still struggling with in Saudi Arabia.

President Umaru Yar-Adua may be slow in his approach but then, one thing is very clear, Yar-Adua has done much to strengthen the Nigerian democracy through the instrumentality of the judiciary.
Gone are the dark days when Chief Obasanjo disobeyed court orders and imposed his favourites as governors, senators, etc on the people.

President Yar-Adua’s penchant for the rule of law and good governance put him shoulder and head above many leaders who have had the opportunity of presiding over the affairs of this country.
I strongly believe in President Yar-Adua’s ability to put things right before the next general elections.

My confidence is founded on the President’s determination for his administration to be anchored on the rule of law and the dexterity that he displayed while handling the Niger-Delta crisis. The massive submission of arms by the Niger-Delta crisis. The massive submission of arms by the Niger-Delta human right activities is legendary and unprecedented.

Now that the President is sick, we can only pray for his quick recovery to enable him face the business of governance headlong again, for without President Yar-Adua, there would not have been Governor Adams Oshiomhole, Governor Olusegun Mimiko as well as Governor Rotimi Amechi.

However, on the President’s return to the country after his treatments there are several issues that he must quickly address in order to save the country from doom and imminent collapse.

Firstly, we have a very faulty electoral system that we have all agreed is inimical to our political prosperity. The Muhammed Uwais Committee report has done justice to these defective electoral laws. One would have expected the National Assembly to immediately adopt the report and pass it into law but this is not the case as the National Assembly, a bunch of corrupt and selfish individuals have decided to sit on the report. Let me quickly assert here that we do not have a real National Assembly that we can call our own and like many other Nigerians, I am completely disappointed in the Bankole and Mark’s leadership of the National Assembly.

Secondly, the 1999 Constitution must be speedily amended in order to completely expunge the immunity clause under which many governors have been engaging in alarming proportions of financial crimes.

Furthermore, chapter 2 of the 1999 constitution wherein the duties of government to the people of Nigeria were clearly stated but not justifiable in court should also be expunged because it makes mockery of our democratic system and portrays us as very unserious people. Again, there is need for us to revert to the parliamentary system of government that is cheaper to run and calls for thoroughness and discipline. I also think that the National Assembly members and law makers at all levels of government should operate on part time basis to enable only serious minded individuals to come into the system.

The issues of rotational presidency as espoused by the PDP and quota system as enshrined in our constitution are problematic and does not encourage merit. Thus allocation of opportunities and resources are made based on ethnicity rather than on merit. This anomaly clearly explains why mediocrity has become, the order of the day in the nation.

The 1999 constitution portrays us as practicing federalism but in reality, Nigeria is not being run on the basis of federalism otherwise, the governors would not have been going to Abuja with cup in hand begging for funds and monthly allocation. In other words, in a real federal system, the centre should be weak while the federation units, which are the states, are strong. The federating units under federalism are expected to develop their resources and pay tax to the federal government.

We need to therefore stop this argument of the possibility of good luck Jonathan becoming President because it only bothers on ethnicity and sectionalism. Besides I see President Yar Adua as a better material as President than Good luck Jonathan.

No doubt, providence has been on the side of the Vice President, I had expected far more than this in terms of performance but he has not lived up to expectation.

2011 is drawing nearer and the time is now to make serious amends about our polity. If we miss this opportunity, Nigeria may just be heading towards disintegration because many Nigerians are not cowards and would resist any fraudulent and faulty arrangement in 2011.

The truth remains that the 1999 constitution allows the Vice President to take over as President in the event of President Yar Adua’s inability to continue in office. This is not a bad arrangement. It is however encouraging that news filtering from Saudi Arabia has it that President is responding to treatment and may soon come and take his place in the polity.

Comment