Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been accused of doublespeak by President Bola Tinubu’s special adviser on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, following Obasanjo’s remark that Western Democracy has failed in Africa.
Mr. Onanuga said in a statement that it was Obasanjo during his time as military head of state who foisted western liberal democracy on Nigeria rather than maintain the Parliamentary system which was bequeathed the country by the British colonialistS.
Obasanjo, who was speaking in Abeokuta during a discussion on democracy, “Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy For Africa,” stated that Africa needs to evolve a democratic system that would work in Africa.
Apparently rattled by Obasanjo’s submissions, Tinubu’s men reminded Obasanjo of his role in Nigeria running an expensive Presidential System of government.
“Obasanjo ought to know that he brought this thing into Nigeria,” said Onanuga
“He was the one who made us adopt it in 1979. He must have seen it as expensive and unsuitable when he governed us for eight years and even wanted an extension for another four years. So, the way he is sounding, it is like the man is getting wiser after leaving office.”
“If he believes in what he is saying now, he ought to be an advocate of the need to go back to the parliamentary system.
“We were practising the parliamentary democracy the British left for us. Then, the military struck in 1966. And when we were going to return to democracy, instead of going back to what we were practising before, parliamentary democracy, which was not expensive, it was this same Obasanjo who accepted the recommendation of the constitutional assembly at the time that recommended this American-style democracy.
“Obasanjo also knew that he copied this presidential system very wrongly. He copied the form and structure, but he didn’t copy the spirit of it. Something that should have been under him in 1999 to 2007. He even made attempts to modify the constitution.”
