‘Time to look at parliamentary system’ — Onaiyekan faults Nigeria’s constitution

John Onaiyekan, a cardinal and former Catholic archbishop of Abuja, says the country’s constitution is riddled with “inconsistencies”.

Speaking at an event organised by the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought on Friday, Onaiyekan said there is a need to decentralise power and make the states efficient.

The cardinal said the constitution does not stipulate how religion is meant to contribute to nation-building.

“If we take the present constitution, whether amended or not, it is riddled with inconsistencies or contradictions, problems when it comes to seriously talking about how religion relates to the nation,” Onaiyekan said.

“Which is why it is obvious we must look at it again. So, maybe it is good that we give it a look at changing to a parliamentary system.

“Perhaps we need to find out to ask those soldiers who threw away the parliamentary system and introduced the presidential system. What reasons did they have?

Also speaking at the event, George Ehusani, a Catholic priest, said poor leadership would ruin a country no matter how perfect a governance blueprint is.

“For I have become more convinced today than ever before that leadership debauchery and elite idiocy will ruin any nation no matter how perfect the political structure and governance blueprint that they adopt,” Ehusani said.

“And it has been well established by social scientists that the collapse of powerful civilizations is hardly ever precipitated by external attack, but instead by internal decay or what the ancient mystics call due to the want of honour in the soul, the want of order in the soul.”