The 2023 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, has called for a reconsideration of Nigeria’s current presidential system of government.
According to Cole, the system is not suitable for the country.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, Cole noted that most people in Africa were uncomfortable with the political systems practiced in their respective countries.
“This American system that we call Presidential system in Nigeria, we need to go and readdress it,” Cole said.
He emphasised that importing political systems from other countries, such as the UK’s parliamentary system or the U.S. presidential system, would not work in Nigeria.
“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 said.
Cole noted that 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.
“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, ” he added.
The politician emphasised that Nigeria’s system of government should be rooted in its own culture.
Cole also noted that the country had an indigenous political structure before colonisation 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 said.
Cole explained that part of the reasons the presidential system could work in Nigeria was that it could be exploited by a few people.
He added that the presidential system had not built institutions that could hold people to account.
“We are building institutions that are modeled after the British system which I noted cannot be accommodated by the Nigerian culture,” he also said.
