The Presidential candidate of the Fresh Democratic Party, FRESH, Rev. Chris Okotie, has declared his intention to scrap the National assembly as part of his political reforms, if elected President in the forthcoming election; as he would use his position as the president to set up an interim government.
Okotie made this known on Tuesday during an interactive session with some members of his church.
He said if elected to set up an interim government of National Reconciliation and Reconstruction as advocated in his letters to the political leaders, he would scrap the parliament, ministerial portfolios and other political offices that have made the cost of governance almost unbearable.
He insisted that what Nigeria needs now is not election but far-reaching reforms that could drastically alter the political and economic structures of the country. Otherwise, the present stagnation and widespread frustration which have birthed the general state of insecurity, anger and violence would continue.
The FRESH Presidential candidate said there are extant, fundamental sovereignty issues that no sitting government has been able to solve since the post-independence crisis that led to the 30-month civil war. He said any president elected on the basis of the widely rejected 1999 Constitution would be castrated politically as a result of the present dysfunctional state of the country, which only a new, workable constitution can solve.
He said resource allocation to public infrastructural development is shrinking because of the high cost of running our present democracy, that is why he suggested a new system of government that is peculiar to our political clime and culture.
“The cost of running the Legislature is staggering and if you add the salaries and allowances of the ministers and their aides, political appointees that do nothing productive, you could see why Nigeria is hemorrhaging”, Rev. Okotie added. He also quoted a portion of his letter where he presented an alternative legislative arrangement under his proposed Aboriginal democracy.
“My mandate, therefore, will be to set up an interim government which I have christened GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL RECONCILIATION AND RECONSTRUCTION as the mechanical instrumentality for the crystallization of the new Nigeria of our dreams. Our current democracy has been hijacked by elitism, mysticism and Satanism. Aboriginal democracy will focus on cultural historicity, evolutional modernity and global relativity as the necessary ingredients of our evolutional political indigenization.
“Under this system, the current legislature would merge with the judiciary to create a unique judicature that administers justice and shares the enactment of legislative responsibilities with the Presidency. This would save us the huge cost of running the National Assembly and obviate all the paralyzing debates that often stalled the passage of bills.”