A former vice chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and convener of the Northern Elders Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi, has declared support for the ongoing legislative campaign for Nigeria’s return to parliamentary system of government.
Professor Abdullahi who spoke yesterday commended members of the House of Representatives who sponsored the bills seeking the adoption of parliamentary system led by Hon. Abdulsamad Dasuki and Hon. Wale Raji who visited him.
The elder statesman said the military teleguided the Constituent Assembly of 1976/77 to adopt either a French or American presidential system of government, and since 1976 he never gave up on the parliamentary system of government as it provides ground for accountability and quality leadership.
While stressing that the parliamentary system of government as practiced in 1963 was not given sufficient time to thrive in the country, he averred that Nigerian project is not working because “we do not know its history”.
Abdullahi, a member of the First Republic parliament maintained that parliamentary system of government worked for all and sundry, posited that the current presidential system of government has failed to yield desired results over the past 24 years.
“If you are talking of failure of the system, it’s totally unfair to say that Parliamentary system failed in Nigeria. It has not. Only that it has not been given sufficient time So, my personal position is that, I’m 100 percent against the presidential system of government, it’s an unsuitable system not only for Nigeria, but any country that is in this reckless, greedy western world.
“The democracy the western world is trying to force down the throat of every nation in the world is to serve their interest. And check honestly, academically, materially and so on, see what happened since 1960 till date”, he said.
