The Lead Bishop of Worldwide Anglican Church, WAC, in Nigeria, Rt. Rev. Seun Adeoye has urged the National Assembly to make laws that will return Nigeria to regional and parliamentary systems of government.
The cleric explained that if the National Assembly found it worthy to replace an anthem jettisoned 46 years ago, nothing is wrong in restoring old orders that helped grow the nation in the past.
Adeoye, in a statement obtained by newsmen on Wednesday in Osogbo, said returning to the old orders was some of the restructuring many stakeholders in Nigeria have been clamouring for in the past 25 years.
“The old anthem came with Nigeria’s independence in 1960 but was changed in 1978. The other old orders we inherited were the parliamentary and the regional systems of governments.
“Successful military governments came on board and bastardized and balkanized the systems. They took away the regional governments until three regions became 36 states. They took away the parliamentary and gave us the unitary system in 1966 and the presidential system in 1979.
“Yes, the military who came through the barrels of guns took away ‘Nigeria, we hail thee”, a national anthem some of us grew to know and sing and in 1978 gave us ‘Arise oh compatriot’.
“If after 46 years of jettisoning the old anthem, we still found it worthy and necessary to restore it into our national life, I think nothing is wrong when we bring back the old systems that had worked for us in the past.
“For me, I think Nigeria’s economy as it stands today is not strong enough to successfully funds the present presidential system of government and even bring about the expected developmental projects across Nigeria. Therefore, I suggest that we return to the parliamentary system as inherited from the British at independence in 1960,” he said.
On regionalism, the cleric suggested that apart from cutting down the cost in the running of government businesses, “it will also encourage healthy competitions leading to fast economic growths and infrastructural developments among the regions as recorded in the early 60s”.
However, Adeoye suggested that instead of making it the three regions as it was before, it should be six geographical zones as is currently obtainable in Nigeria.
