On the 16th of April last year, millions of Nigerians made a mistake. They voted Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan president of Africa’s most populous country Nigeria. It has become a mistake as each day his leadership has shown remarkable cluelessness and a lack of grasp of the issues. His handling of the controversial fuel price hike which began as a surprise on January 1, 2012 is a good example.
Mistakes should not be without reasonable remedy however. One of the first lessons yours truly learnt in word processing is undoing. It simply means reverting to a previous state if the outcome of an action is undesired. Prudence requires one to make haste slowly but even very prudent people make mistakes by commission or omission hence the need for correction. We have spell checks for a reason.
There is an outbreak of illness in a Banana community and the illness is Typhoid fever. A fever cause by bacteria: Salmonella Typhi inhabiting the intestines. The doctor in charge in Community Hospital is Dr. Jonah Lucky. He has carried out extensive tests and come to the same conclusion the patients had, considering the patients’ history. However, the doctor wants to treat Typhoid with Chloroquine. The patients insist that Chloroquine is a drug now ineffective against Malaria and besides the ailment as proven by tests is Typhoid and not Malaria. What’s more, the patients have a history of reacting terribly to Chloroquine or any Quinine related treatment due to its itchy effect. But against this warning, Dr. Jonah Lucky proceeds to giving an overdose of Chloroquine claiming “the pill would be hard to swallow, I understand your pain and I have provided a very little Piriton to cushion the effect of the itching.”
The patients at this juncture of intense uncontrollable adverse reaction insists on a discontinuation of this line of treatment but the doctor refuses and insists that an administration of his wonder drug would be the best cure in the long run. He calls in nurses to bind the patients and gag them to prevent further reaction to the drug. The patients have a right to discontinue the use of this doctor or his line of treatment. The patients must not die because they trust this doctor who would not face the real ailment but is determined to treat the community with a cheap drug charged too high. His nurses continue to appeal for the patients’ calm and to have faith that Chloroquine is a cure all for all diseases including HIV. The patients shouted late into the night for 9 days only for the doctor and his nurses to pay no attention.
We cannot wait until the end of this tenure to stop this line of governance just as patients in the above scenario should not wait for one more day to ask to be withdrawn from this very expensive yet incompetent clinic and its doctor. Nigerians need a clause in the constitution that guarantees midterm assessment and right to recall through referendum an incompetent and non performing government. Waiting four long years to see out this administration is like asking the dying patients in Dr. Jonah Lucky’s Community Clinic to have faith that the wrong line of treatment will eventually cure their Typhoid.
We should have a referendum after two years with the option of Yes/No to the incumbent administration. Where a no vote is reached, the senate takes over and for a short period of no more than 2 months. However, there will be no general elections with its obvious cost implication. An Electoral College of no more than 50 thousand Nigerians from across the country who are not members of political parties shall constitute this Electoral College and shall have the right vote in this mid-term referendum.
Yes, there will be no continuity and all that, but it provides the people, who are in the end, the ultimate recipients of adverse policies to be more empowered in determining the quality of leadership they get. What is more important or the gain from this is that elected persons must sit up for the two years they are guaranteed or they face getting sent out for non performance. Does the senate not have the impeachment right one might ask? Well, they have been known to be partisan with the incumbent powers while their proceedings are deliberately too slow.
Perform very quickly or you get benched. Even if we have a terminal illness, a doctor worth his salt will show mastery in diagnosis, right choice of drugs and there will be improved symptoms within a short while compared to this long wait while the people die. Studies should be done before even deciding to vie for office, any government should start performing from day two (day one being set aside to receive felicitations).
Nigerians are not biased, they can tell a performing government from an indolent or stubborn one. Before the mid-term Electoral College referendum, there shall be no sponsored campaigns from the incumbent regime or the opposition. They may produce working documents at town hall meetings and in write up in newspapers showing a performance but not political campaigns. The aim being that, we cannot have a fresh campaign to woo just 50thousand people who will be representing the larger majority in this midterm referendum.
The competing incomers shall nominate their basic cabinet of 5, stand before a senate screening and then proceed to televised debates. After the two months of interim leadership of the senate, the Electoral College referendum takes place and the new government takes over while the outgoing one heads straight for an inquiry where their deeds and misdeeds are examined and where found culpable are jailed for no less than 4 years and thus losing their right to contest future elections.
Incompetence is such a detestable phenomenon and should be discouraged absolutely. Corruption is deep rooted in our system. A more accountable system other than the wasteful one which we run need be adopted. I fail to see why we should let the mistake of April 16 remain for another three years, or why future governments should be insulated from prosecution through an immunity clause that needs be reexamined to provide for reasonable exemptions. A system like the one proposed here is not perfect but will give more power to the people. I think we have heard that before.
Summarily, this document proposes a midterm referendum for the executive arm of government at state and federal levels after two years. The aim being to recall a nonperforming government or let a performing one continue. The present law guarantees a non performing government a tenure of four years, but it is inequitable for a statute to be used as a cloak for fraud or misrule.
This referendum shall be carried out by an Electoral College of no more than 50 thousand Nigerians who are not members of political parties.
There shall be no political campaigns to woo the Electoral College members by overt or covert means. Only newspaper write-ups showing performance by the incumbent government or lack of it by shadow cabinets. Radio and TV advertising are also not in the best interest as those will create an atmosphere of fresh general elections all over.
That winning the referendum shall be by a two-third majority. Where there is no such majority reached, a congress of state assemblies and National Assembly shall within 24 hours vote to reach a reasonable conclusion.
That the succeeding shadow cabinet shall stay in office only for the remainder of the tenure that is two years.
The gains of this system cannot be overemphasized. Governments are meant to be proactive and not reactive. The people cannot endure a bad government for four years and in the end, they manipulate the system with a power of incumbency to remain further in office for yet another term.
Opposition parties on the other hand do not go to bed soon after losing a general election only to resurface after a four years hiatus. Most importantly, a sitting government will work tirelessly to ensure that its two years are guaranteed through effective performance. This system also prevents a waste of public funds associated with general elections as it proposes the Electoral College system for the referendums.
This system also provides check against over spending during campaigns because a nonperforming government can be recalled two years after and thereafter face justice.
Mistakes should not be without reasonable remedy. Voting Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in last year’s general elections has come to be a mistake acknowledged by Nigerians. The guaranteed four year tenure may be great in America but unrealistic here in Nigeria where it ensures that a corrupt regime will remain in office to profit itself and its cronies while the people continue to suffer misrule. We are aware that it is inequitable to let a party profit by its own wrong. A failure to consider this proposition by the National Assembly would amount to colluding to perpetrate further harm on a hapless people. Let power return at intervals, to the people.
Mistakes should not be without reasonable remedy however. One of the first lessons yours truly learnt in word processing is undoing. It simply means reverting to a previous state if the outcome of an action is undesired. Prudence requires one to make haste slowly but even very prudent people make mistakes by commission or omission hence the need for correction. We have spell checks for a reason.
There is an outbreak of illness in a Banana community and the illness is Typhoid fever. A fever cause by bacteria: Salmonella Typhi inhabiting the intestines. The doctor in charge in Community Hospital is Dr. Jonah Lucky. He has carried out extensive tests and come to the same conclusion the patients had, considering the patients’ history. However, the doctor wants to treat Typhoid with Chloroquine. The patients insist that Chloroquine is a drug now ineffective against Malaria and besides the ailment as proven by tests is Typhoid and not Malaria. What’s more, the patients have a history of reacting terribly to Chloroquine or any Quinine related treatment due to its itchy effect. But against this warning, Dr. Jonah Lucky proceeds to giving an overdose of Chloroquine claiming “the pill would be hard to swallow, I understand your pain and I have provided a very little Piriton to cushion the effect of the itching.”
The patients at this juncture of intense uncontrollable adverse reaction insists on a discontinuation of this line of treatment but the doctor refuses and insists that an administration of his wonder drug would be the best cure in the long run. He calls in nurses to bind the patients and gag them to prevent further reaction to the drug. The patients have a right to discontinue the use of this doctor or his line of treatment. The patients must not die because they trust this doctor who would not face the real ailment but is determined to treat the community with a cheap drug charged too high. His nurses continue to appeal for the patients’ calm and to have faith that Chloroquine is a cure all for all diseases including HIV. The patients shouted late into the night for 9 days only for the doctor and his nurses to pay no attention.
We cannot wait until the end of this tenure to stop this line of governance just as patients in the above scenario should not wait for one more day to ask to be withdrawn from this very expensive yet incompetent clinic and its doctor. Nigerians need a clause in the constitution that guarantees midterm assessment and right to recall through referendum an incompetent and non performing government. Waiting four long years to see out this administration is like asking the dying patients in Dr. Jonah Lucky’s Community Clinic to have faith that the wrong line of treatment will eventually cure their Typhoid.
We should have a referendum after two years with the option of Yes/No to the incumbent administration. Where a no vote is reached, the senate takes over and for a short period of no more than 2 months. However, there will be no general elections with its obvious cost implication. An Electoral College of no more than 50 thousand Nigerians from across the country who are not members of political parties shall constitute this Electoral College and shall have the right vote in this mid-term referendum.
Yes, there will be no continuity and all that, but it provides the people, who are in the end, the ultimate recipients of adverse policies to be more empowered in determining the quality of leadership they get. What is more important or the gain from this is that elected persons must sit up for the two years they are guaranteed or they face getting sent out for non performance. Does the senate not have the impeachment right one might ask? Well, they have been known to be partisan with the incumbent powers while their proceedings are deliberately too slow.
Perform very quickly or you get benched. Even if we have a terminal illness, a doctor worth his salt will show mastery in diagnosis, right choice of drugs and there will be improved symptoms within a short while compared to this long wait while the people die. Studies should be done before even deciding to vie for office, any government should start performing from day two (day one being set aside to receive felicitations).
Nigerians are not biased, they can tell a performing government from an indolent or stubborn one. Before the mid-term Electoral College referendum, there shall be no sponsored campaigns from the incumbent regime or the opposition. They may produce working documents at town hall meetings and in write up in newspapers showing a performance but not political campaigns. The aim being that, we cannot have a fresh campaign to woo just 50thousand people who will be representing the larger majority in this midterm referendum.
The competing incomers shall nominate their basic cabinet of 5, stand before a senate screening and then proceed to televised debates. After the two months of interim leadership of the senate, the Electoral College referendum takes place and the new government takes over while the outgoing one heads straight for an inquiry where their deeds and misdeeds are examined and where found culpable are jailed for no less than 4 years and thus losing their right to contest future elections.
Incompetence is such a detestable phenomenon and should be discouraged absolutely. Corruption is deep rooted in our system. A more accountable system other than the wasteful one which we run need be adopted. I fail to see why we should let the mistake of April 16 remain for another three years, or why future governments should be insulated from prosecution through an immunity clause that needs be reexamined to provide for reasonable exemptions. A system like the one proposed here is not perfect but will give more power to the people. I think we have heard that before.
Summarily, this document proposes a midterm referendum for the executive arm of government at state and federal levels after two years. The aim being to recall a nonperforming government or let a performing one continue. The present law guarantees a non performing government a tenure of four years, but it is inequitable for a statute to be used as a cloak for fraud or misrule.
This referendum shall be carried out by an Electoral College of no more than 50 thousand Nigerians who are not members of political parties.
There shall be no political campaigns to woo the Electoral College members by overt or covert means. Only newspaper write-ups showing performance by the incumbent government or lack of it by shadow cabinets. Radio and TV advertising are also not in the best interest as those will create an atmosphere of fresh general elections all over.
That winning the referendum shall be by a two-third majority. Where there is no such majority reached, a congress of state assemblies and National Assembly shall within 24 hours vote to reach a reasonable conclusion.
That the succeeding shadow cabinet shall stay in office only for the remainder of the tenure that is two years.
The gains of this system cannot be overemphasized. Governments are meant to be proactive and not reactive. The people cannot endure a bad government for four years and in the end, they manipulate the system with a power of incumbency to remain further in office for yet another term.
Opposition parties on the other hand do not go to bed soon after losing a general election only to resurface after a four years hiatus. Most importantly, a sitting government will work tirelessly to ensure that its two years are guaranteed through effective performance. This system also prevents a waste of public funds associated with general elections as it proposes the Electoral College system for the referendums.
This system also provides check against over spending during campaigns because a nonperforming government can be recalled two years after and thereafter face justice.
Mistakes should not be without reasonable remedy. Voting Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in last year’s general elections has come to be a mistake acknowledged by Nigerians. The guaranteed four year tenure may be great in America but unrealistic here in Nigeria where it ensures that a corrupt regime will remain in office to profit itself and its cronies while the people continue to suffer misrule. We are aware that it is inequitable to let a party profit by its own wrong. A failure to consider this proposition by the National Assembly would amount to colluding to perpetrate further harm on a hapless people. Let power return at intervals, to the people.
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