A Presidential aspirant for the 2023 election, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, has said that the president Nigeria deserves should be one that has the capacity to manage diversity equitably and peacefully, create wealth and exterminate poverty.
Speaking with The Guardian at Umuahia, the Abia State capital, the Abia State-born politician and also the current National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) faulted the extant Nigerian Constitution on the basis that it is not a document prepared by Nigerians.
“This document we operate as constitution was imposed by the military government in our then quest for democratic governance,” he said. He said that the said constitution, which Nigerians call for its amendment, over-concentrated power at the centre and has not devolved power appropriately to the federating units, namely states, local councils, hence the Federal or Central Government became very over-bearing against the federating units.
Besides, he said that the extant constitution had made governance very expensive going by the duplication of offices at the three levels of government and the bi-cameral legislature.
He, therefore, urged that unicameral legislature be considered, including part-time for lawmakers, stressing that the bi-cameralism at federal and state levels has subjected 70-80 per cent of the nation’s income to recurrent expenditures, thus eating deep into that of capital.
Ohuabunwa, a former Chairman of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Chairman of the Organised Private Sector (OPS), President of the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) and member of both Visions 2010 and 2020, among others, also faulted the extant national resources sharing formula, advising that the generators of the shareable resources should be better compensated by providing that they pay to the central government royalties as the constitution would provide.
The presidential aspirant, who said the Igbo could not be rightly disregarded in the country, urged Buhari to, as father of the nation, think deep and convene a conference of ethnic, religious and other constituent groups in the country to discuss issues of national cohesion, equity and justice.
He said that his aspiration was motivated by divine inspiration, saying: “I am considering the possibility of emerging through one of three platforms, namely PDP, APC and a Third Force (a conglomeration of many political parties).”