Presidential system is too expensive, killing Nigeria’s economy — National Secretary, Labour Party 

Comrade Joseph Ndirang is the Acting National Secretary of Labour Party (LP) in Nigeria. He spoke to Matthew Denis on issues relating to the signing of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Independent National Electoral Commison’s (INEC’s) Timetable for 2023 General Elections and his party’s preparation. He argued that the presidential system is too costly for the Country and thus killing Nigeria’s economy. According to him, the parliamentary system of Government is the best option for the Country, which he argued would end rising agitations over zoning principles. In his view, merit is of stronger priority to the yearnings of national development against the emphasis on zoning. Excerpts:

President Buhari had signed the reworked Elec-toral Act Amendment Bill into law recently. What is your view concerning the clause on the amendment of the Direct Primary which generated a lot of controversy? 

The newly signed Electoral Act has been long overdue and I don’t see the hullabaloo surrounding it – the noise in the Country; people shouting that the bill has been signed. President Buhari has done what he’s supposed to do. It is overdue and would have been signed long time ago, because what we need in this country from the 22 years of democracy is an electoral system reflecting the people’s will – free, fair and credible. Having said that, the clause that Mr. President was quarreling about – talking about the direct primary or indirect primary – democracy is about massive participation and about the people, that’s why Abraham Lincoln who gave the definition about Democracy said: ‘Democracy is the Government of the people, by the people and for the people.’ You can see that people appeared three times in that definition meaning that it’s all about people. It is not about yourself because the present Administration of President Buhari is about them. They will just execute what they want to execute not what the people want. A typical example is that they have the majority at the National Assembly. You can see what happens to the women’s bill which I described as very unfortunate. No reasonable Government will do that to the Nigerian women even when the wife of the Vice President was seated, it’s really disheartening. But to crown it all, the electoral bill is ok. In view of the issues of Direct and Indirect primaries, it is left for the parties to determine that. As for Labour Party, our primaries have always been direct because we believed in the people’s organised party. And this has remained our step and ideology.

The Independent National Electoral Commison (INEC) has rolled out the timetable for the 2023 General Elections. What’s the expectation from the electorates on your party?

The Labour Party is one of the most popular parties in Nigeria today, but let me just tell you that the powers that be have been doing everything possible so that the party doesn’t survive. And we have some ‘fifth columnist’ that have hands on what is happening in the Party. You can see that for the past five to seven years, the party hasn’t been stable, experiencing leadership scribble. The scribble is not far-fetched because some political scavengers have just decided to hijack the party and it has become a merchandise where they give ticket to the highest bidder. If you have money, just call and they will give ticket without caring whether you will win or not. However, we’re changing the situation. You can see that last week the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) held a workers political conference and there was massive turnout. The Trade Union Congress will be holding a similar conference in few weeks and I can assure you that the outcome of these conferences will give prescription on how to go and retrieve the party. We want to retrieve the party from the hands of these miscreants and we want to do it peacefully. We shall visit the INEC Chairman and ask him who registered this party?  It was the Nigerian workers that registered this party and it belonged to them. And let me tell you in about 67 countries in the world, Labour Party is existing and six of these Countries are being ruled by Labour Party as their Presidents – Barbados, Netherlands, Norway, among others. Labour Party is not like any other party. In Nigeria, we are happy of the 91 Political Parties; about 71 were deregistered and Labour Party still remains as one of the 18 surviving parties. We intend to bring out our manifesto which is very clear. We want to introduce a new order in the political scenario in 2023, as we will not entertain politicians that have been joining us and leaving at anytime – crosscarpeting from one party to the other. If you come to us, we’ll check your pedigree to see your contribution to national development before we can give you ticket in Labour Party. It’s not going to be business as usual and I want to assure you that as we retrieve the political party, a new dawn of an era is going to come and Labour Party is going to be the real testforce that we are talking about. If you witnessed the NLC political conference, you would have seen the crop of Politicians and dignitaries like Prof. Pat Utomi, Prof. Attairu Jega, Comrade Adams Oshiomole, among others, who attended. As we come out of the TUC conference, we’ll take a line of action. Both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are birds of same feather; it’s same people crisscrossing into each others parties. So, the hope for Nigerians is for them to check the antecedents of Labour party as we have been the one in the forefront struggle for the common man. Even presently, we have held this Government to ransom, if not,the fuel would have increased to N350 per litre. We have everything to ensure that the interest of Nigerians is given priority.

What is your perspective on some Nigerians calling for a two-party system in the country?

Anybody who thinks like that is not a Democrat. Like I earlier said, democracy it’s all about the people and we have to allow them have that freedom. There’s nothing wrong in having a multi-party system. What I would rather suggest in Nigeria is that we were dragged into this Presidential System of Government by the military. What would have been better for us will be the parlimentary system? Where we have a bicameral legislature, the presidential system is too expensive for this country. Look at the people at the National Assembly, with 360 House of Representatives members and 109 Senators. And again  you go to the states with House of Assembly members, all these are killing the national economy. The best thing for to do is to reverse to the parlimentary system of Government which we started with, because our founding fathers started on that premise. You see when you have the President, he is almost ceremonial. The powers were on the regions. We wouldn’t have this agitation that we are experiencing in the South East, and they are right because if every geopolitical zones of the country have tasted the presidency, there wouldn’t be agitation. There are two zones that haven’t tasted the Presidency – the South-East and the North-East. The President is from the North, justice demands that the presidency is zoned to the South-East region as the only geopolitical zone that haven’t done it. And when it comes back to the North, the North-East should be given the presidency. However, I don’t believe in that because if you ask me deep down in my heart, I naturally don’t believe in zoning. If you have the capacity, technocrat and a freespirited person, it doesn’t matter where you are coming from, be the president of Nigeria to take us to our promiseland.

How can you rate the performance of President Buhari’s Administration since 2015?

The rating is very clear; you know by 2015 you know how much a Dollar was to the Naira; in 2015 we know how much we buy fuel per litre in Nigeria; we know how much a module of rice cost or a bag of rice. I can continue to tell you that the indices are clear. What we have is a failed government and I say this with every sense of responsibility. And what I see the APC playing is what I call ‘arrogance in failure.’ When you fail, ordinarily you are supposed to bow your head, but here I see a new rule where people have literally failed but they are raising their heads and shoulders trying to tell people who they are; I think it’s quite unfortunate. I didn’t say that APC has failed or this Government is not performing. I remember, I know Buhari better than many people today. In 1984,  I was working in a Federal Institution in this country. Before he came, we warned people and said this was what happened in 1984 – some of guys were young and not born then – we came to work one morning and we heard that people have been retrenched and the word was new to us then, and we thought it was a form of promotion only for us to hear that people were laid-off. Most of us became jobless, no sugar, the soap that we used to wash clothes was sunlight, there was no sunlight nor Omo. We queued and soldiers will flog you just for you to buy a cup of sugar; so Nigerians suffered, our parents suffered. They were flogged mercilessly because they want to buy sugar for their children. And we said if it is the kind of person that is coming back, we don’t want him. so what do we have today with all the promises? The rating has rated itself in this Government.