Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, a former head of the Special Presidential Investigations panel, has urged the National Assembly to enact legislation that will lower Nigeria’s excessive level of bureaucracy and government expenses.
The attorney disagreed with calls for a parliamentary system of government to replace the presidential one, arguing instead that the National Assembly should pass laws consistently promoting wise resource management, a decrease in corruption, inefficiency, and maladministration, as well as a productive economy.
“I do not subscribe to the view that a parliamentary system is ideal for Nigeria.
“If we desire to change the form of government we are currently practising, then we should work at having a meeting point between the parliamentary system and presidential system, such as we have seen in countries like France.
“I do not even think that it is the form of government that we are practising that is making governance expensive as some people would make us believe.
“What is making the cost of governance expensive is our legendary greed, covetousness, selfishness and seeing government as an avenue and instrument for the dispensation of patronage rather than public good for the greatest number.
“I don’t see how the country would change even if there is a switch in the form of government as long as we continue to have people in the National Assembly who are taking a chunk of the national budget as perks and take home.
“If we continue to have an echelon of civil servants that do not think about the masses but are more interested in wealth accumulation taking advantage of their privileged position in the bureaucracy.”
Obono-Obla stated that although he is not enthusiastic about the proposal for a parliamentary form of government, it is not what would put food on Nigerians’ tables or lessen the nation’s current economic woes.
“The call is therefore a red herring and diversionary tactic by the House of the Representatives wing of the National Assembly of the governing elite.
“I wonder aloud why some of our legislators think that a switch in the form of government practice is a panacea to the monumental problems and issues confronting and grappling the country.”
