I just listened to a video clip where Peter Obi was ignorantly mischaracterising Nigeria’s presidential system of government in the US. He went as far as describing Commissioners and Ministers created by the Constitution as lunatics. Ironically, Peter Obi worked with lunatics for 8 years as Governor of Anambra State and planned to work with lunatics as VP under Atiku in 2019. Most recently, he attempted to be the leader of lunatics if he had won the 2023 presidential election.
Meanwhile, throughout the 2023 presidential election season, Peter Obi never for once campaigned to push for a switch from presidential to parliamentary system of government if elected as president. He did not indicate that in a presidential system, the President is ‘not’ answerable to the people. In fact he wanted to be that president who is not answerable to the people. Until he lost and suddenly remembered that the parliamentary system is the best system of government.
Funny enough, the Peter Obi hypocrisy is so glaring to see. This is a man that was Governor for 8 years and employed Commissioners (who he now refers as bunch of lunatics) to defend him such as Prof. Stella Okunna. He did not see them as lunatics then.
I would have loved to ask Obi how he was accountable to the people in his 8 years in office as Governor of Anambra State and yet couldn’t conduct LGA elections without fear of any consequence from the people.
Peter Obi has made it his favourite past time to continuously unravel his ignorance at every given opportunity. The mere fact that he feels having a presidential media chat or addressing NASS in a state of the Union equates to being accountable to the people shows how ignorant he is about the workings of the presidential system he wants to become president under.
@PeterObi let me educate you briefly. In our presidential system, a president is accountable to the electorates who elected him. He is checked by the national assembly, which is made up of representatives from various constituencies and can be removed from office by these lawmakers before the expiration of his term in office, who are acting on behalf of their constituents. In essence, if people from many constituencies feel the President has committed offences that warrant removal, they can pressure their representatives to commence the process of impeachment and removal from office of the President.
In the Parliamentary system that Obi feel is easier to remove the President/Prime Minister, I’m sure he doesn’t even understand how it works. Leadership change can only occur WITHIN THE PARTY with the majority before the next general election. So, if we were practicing a parliamentary system and Tinubu happened to be Nigeria’s Prime Minister, it means that APC has the absolute majority in Parliament, enough to form government and Tinubu, who was elected first as a member of Parliament also doubles as the Leader of the APC.
So, any leadership change or vote of no confidence by the Parliament would have to come principally from APC members in the Parliament before it will succeed and not necessarily the electorates or opposition MPs. In the end, it’s even worse than the presidential system in terms of accountability to the people because another individual in the party with the majority (APC) who was not DIRECTLY voted for by the people to become president/prime minister of Nigeria can emerge as prime minister in a twinkle of an eye if there is an internal rebellion within the APC – not necessarily emanating from the people.
