Rivers State All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the 2023 general elections, Tonye Cole, has declared that Nigeria's presidential system of government is failing and requires urgent reconsideration.
Speaking on Channels Television's Politics Today on Friday, Cole emphasized that the American-style presidential system currently practiced in Nigeria is fundamentally unsuitable for the country's unique context.
"This American system that we call the Presidential system in Nigeria, we need to go and readdress it. We cannot import the parliamentary system of the UK and it will work here, we cannot import a presidential system, it will not work here," Cole stated.
The APC chieftain highlighted a broader dissatisfaction with imported political systems across the African continent, noting that these foreign models are "absolutely contrary to who we are" as Africans.
Cole pointed to successful nations worldwide that have developed governance systems tailored to their specific cultural contexts, citing Arab nations and China as examples of countries that rejected Western political models in favor of systems aligned with their own traditions.
"Let us build an African, Nigerian focused political system and we have had it. We had a political system before the Europeans came, we had a political system even when the slave trade was going on. So, what are we running away from? We know what to do," he emphasized.
According to the former Rivers State gubernatorial candidate, a key flaw in Nigeria's current system is its vulnerability to exploitation by a small elite. He criticized the lack of robust institutions capable of ensuring accountability within the presidential framework.
Cole further argued that Nigeria's attempts to build institutions modeled after the British system are fundamentally incompatible with Nigerian cultural realities, suggesting that this mismatch contributes to governance challenges facing the nation.
His comments come amid ongoing debates about Nigeria's political structure and the effectiveness of its governance systems in addressing the country's complex challenges.
