An elder statesman, Tanko Yakasai says the military should be held responsible for many of Nigeria’s current problems as it foisted the presidential system on the nation.
He lamented that the current system was not only expensive but also prone to abuse as it encourages concentration of power in the hands of one individual.
Yakasai, who was former President Shehu Shagari’s Liaison Officer to the National Assembly, noted that the nation would fare better practising the parliamentary system bequeathed to it by the British at independence.
“If I can have my way I will say we should go back to parliamentary democracy because what brought about it is the concentration of power in the hands of the chief executive at the federal and state levels. Both the president at the federal level and the state governors at the state levels have the power to appoint and to award contracts. So, it is a question of the system. Don’t concentrate power in the hands of an individual. Let the power be in the hands of people.
“In America, they operate the same system like we do; the only thing is that they are now advanced so much so that there is nothing like the money grabbing thing that we do here.
“But all said and done it was the military that put us in this kind of situation. We didn’t complain about the system we were practicing before.
“What brought this system was the military coup. Before 1966 there was no situation like people stealing money left, right and centre before the military came although I must admit that few people made money, but it was not this money grabbing spree that we have now. But it was the military that came and imposed this idea of presidential system on us.
“Now, after so many years of practicing this presidential system we have found out that it has taken us deeper into crisis and now it is difficult to find our way out of the problem they created by this imposition.
“What to do now is to do away with this system that concentrates power on one man,” Yakasai told Sunday Sun.
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