Tonye Cole, a former governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, has said the presidential system of government is not woking in Nigeria
Cole said this on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday. He also stated that it is not certain that the parliamentary system would work either, stating that most people in Africa are uncomfortable with the political systems practiced in the Western world.
“This American system that we call the Presidential system in Nigeria, we need to go and readdress it. We cannot import the parliamentary system of the UK and it will work here, we cannot import a presidential system, it will not work here,” he stated.
“Every African in their country, are they satisfied with the political system they have and the democracy they have, they will tell you no. Why? Because it is contrary to who we are, absolutely contrary.”
According to him, every successful country has developed a system of government tailored to its unique context, citing Arab nations and China as examples of countries that rejected Western political models.
The former Rivers State APC gubernatorial flag bearer stressed that Nigeria’s system of government should be rooted in its own culture, noting that the country had an indigenous political structure before colonization and should consider returning to it.
“Let us build an African, Nigerian focused political system and we have had it. We had a political system before the Europeans came, we had a political system even when the slave trade was going on. So, what are we running away from? We know what to do,” he added.
He pointed out that part of the reasons the presidential system cannot work in Nigeria is because it can be exploited by a few people, adding that it has not built institutions that can hold people to account.
The politician further stated that Nigeria is building institutions that are modeled after the British system which he noted cannot be accommodated by the Nigerian culture.
