How Presidential System Encourages Bad Governance – Peter Obi

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has said the presidential system of government being practiced in Nigeria encourages bad leaders to thrive.

Obi, who stated this at a lecture at Harvard Law School in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, on Tuesday, noted that the presidential system is not working well in Nigeria, hence the country continues to have bad leaders who stay in office for four years without being accountable to the people.

He emphasized the need for Nigeria to return to the parliamentary system of government.

According to Obi, Nigeria needs a parliamentary system of government, where the president can interface with citizens at least once a month.

Obi said, “What happens is, because of the presidential system that has no president in Nigeria today, we have a bad leader and he stays there for four years. When we have a parliamentary system, we can move a motion of no confidence within two or three years.

“If we are in a parliamentary system, a president will be a member of parliament.

“Today, if you elect me as president of Nigeria or governor, I can remove myself entirely from being answerable to the people, just hire a gang of lunatics, talking rubbish every day.

“While, if it is a parliamentary system, during the president’s question time, he has to answer. He doesn’t have to hire anybody to speak for him.

“A president in Nigeria can decide not to talk to anybody for one year and nobody cares because he has hired all these people who do the talking. If you say anything, they call you names, they do this.

“So, we need a parliamentary system where the president will be a member of parliament and will at least, even if it is once a month, answer the people who elected him; because we didn’t elect all these gangsters. We elected somebody and we want the person to talk to us.”