Presidential System Of Govt Dictatorial — Agabi SAN
A former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the federation, Kanu Agabi, SAN, has described the presidential system of government as dictatorial.
He stated this on Monday at the meeting of the 36 states-attorney general organised by the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) in Abuja.
According to him, the presidential system is dictatorial with a purpose to weld the nation together.
He said, “It is a dictatorship with a purpose, used to weld the nation together.
“In presidential system of government, unity is not optional because all powers are vested in one man.
“There is a culture of dictatorship today, there are a lot of tendencies to divide the nation and not unite. We must unite across all regions because nothing will be gained by dividing the nation.
“We must unite to solve the problem confronting us, we can’t solve them by dividing us.
“We need a national integration commission that can unite us so that someone from Plateau can work in Lagos. We must allow a situation where competent Nigerians can serve in a state in another state.
“The borders of the country must be open because these are the things that are militating against our nation,” the erudite lawyer said.
The former AGF also attributed the rising insecurity in thr country to the existence of obsolete laws.
According to him, “the constitution may not be good but it is ours. We must repair and manage it until we can replace it. The states were created by the military, can we reject them? We can’t. A nation cannot have a constitution that is valid for all generations, every generation amends it to suit their needs.
“Secondly, we must modify the laws to suit local circumstances. The laws that govern our affairs are foreign, the system of government adopted is foreign but we must adopt the law else we will continue to have the problem of insecurity. Lack of respect for the constitution, the rule of law.”
He further explained that the machinery of law enforcement is weak.
According to him, the military weakened the judiciary and the security agencies and it will take time to fix it.
“Why do we talk of state police is because the problem of insecurity has become huge.
“The police like the judiciary is a limitless institution.
“Even if we increase the number of policemen, the problem will not abate until we correct ourselves. A divided nation will be insecure,” he added.
On corruption, he said: “we must give up the issue of corruption. We must admit we have a problem with corruption.
“When we steal, bring home proceeds of corruption, we are feeding them with poison.”
Contending that the states are weak, small, easily pocketable, he said where one man is dominated, he or she can easily be manipulated.
Agabi lamented that elections are not free nor fair in Nigeria, saying: “the day this country will have free and fair elections, our problem will be solved.
“We are still in a dictatorship, this time dictatorship of individual, one who can rig himself to power.
“We don’t have opposition, National Assembly operates as an extension of executive, we must have opposition.”
He said the dominance of one political party weakens the nation’s federalism.
“The dominant role played by money, the government is run on level of patronage. It is not pleasant to talk about these things.
He called on state attorney generals to carry out their duty without fear and order.
Igabi urged governors to allow the attorney generals to advise them.
“If your attorney general lie to you he is administering poison to you. If he advises you, you must listen and act become a times of accountability is coming.
“Governors that are violating the laws will create problem of insecurity like it is happening now.
“Many of us in this country and progressing in the false assumption that all will be well in our time but that is not happening. It is not correct to say
“The attorney generals are independent and responsible to the people and not the governor.
“I urge the attorney general to educate themselves because if you don’t know the law you cannot advise your governors. You are not politicians, you may have been taken from the political pool but the moment you are appointed, you belong to the people.
“The attorney general may not be able to give justice but must be able to give consolation,” he stated.
