Nigeria needs parliamentary govt system – Peter Obi

 The Labour Party, LP, 2023 presidential candidate, Peter
Obi, has called for a parliamentary system of government, where the president
can interface with citizens at least once a month.

He spoke at a lecture at Harvard Law School in Boston,
Massachusetts, USA, where he advocated for a parliamentary system of government
in Nigeria.

Obi noted that the presidential system is not working well
in Nigeria, hence the country continues to have bad leaders who stay in office
for four years without being accountable to the people.

He said: “What happens is, because of the presidential
system that has no president in Nigeria today, we have a bad leader and he
stays there for four years. When we have a parliamentary system, we can move a
motion of no confidence within two or three years.

“If we are in a parliamentary system, a president will be a
member of parliament.

“Today, if you elect me as president of Nigeria or governor,
I can remove myself entirely from being answerable to the people, just hire a
gang of lunatics, talking rubbish every day.

“While, if it is a parliamentary system, during the
president’s question time, he has to answer. He doesn’t have to hire anybody to
speak for him.

“A president in Nigeria can decide not to talk to anybody
for one year and nobody cares because he has hired all these people who do the
talking. If you say anything, they call you names, they do this.

“So, we need a parliamentary system where the president will
be a member of parliament and will at least, even if it is once a month, answer
the people who elected him; because we didn’t elect all these gangsters. We
elected somebody and we want the person to talk to us.”