[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Presidency is an institution, it ought to have a life and character of its own as different from the life and character of the President.
It ought to be non-partisan and by that I mean it ought not to be subject to partisanship; especially partisan politics.
In the last 16 years, the Nigerian Presidency has been solidified by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government being the Party in power for the length of our democracy.
With the emergence of All Progressives Congress ( APC ), what appears to be the current preoccupation is a clamp down of the institution and a disoriented Presidency. To my mind, this is in credit to the long years and dominance of the PDP in the Presidency and the distrust of the APC in the system. Which seems to be the reason there is a deliberate effort to rejig the system especially with what’s happening with and at the Department of State Security.
Personally, I think the rejigging is not in bad taste and would be better if done to neutralise the institution from partisanship than to transfer its partisan loyalty from PDP to APC as appears to be the case.
If the institution of the Presidency is strong and neutral, it makes the President better. But where it is weak and subject to the whims and caprices of the President, and he is not forthright, it would be a shadow of itself and a tool, albeit unconstitutional, for oppressing Nigerians.
The Presidency is not meant to make the President an emperor or a dictator wielding wild powers in tyrannical oppression of any section of society. The Presidency is engineered to streamline the actions of the President in accordance with the constitution of Nigeria and make him succeed in fulfilling his sworn duties and obligations. This means the Presidency ought to be stronger than the President in reality but weaker in appearance since it should bar/restrain the President from violating the constitution right before it becomes apparent.
With the positions and counter positions of the current government emanating from the Presidency, one can only safely hold that the new occupants of the Presidency are in the process of adjusting to their new realities. I believe, they would pick up faster and find their feet sooner, if they do not wish to totally obliterate the foundations and system built and sustained for over 16 years. Not everything should be discarded. Where that is the mission, what then is the guarantee that the new system would be neutral and be capable of reining in the President from abusing/undermining his office or violating the constitution, which is its extreme capacity and duty?
I, therefore, hold that any reform of the Presidency that rather than strengthens the institution and neutralises its partisan allegiance seeks to only transfer it, will weaken the institution and expose the President to unnecessary opprobrium from society especially when the operators of the system are inexperienced in the business of governance, let alone democratic governance.
In the light of the above, President Obama’s celebrated counsel in Ghana to African leaders to build strong institutions rather than be strong men comes to mind. Those working behind the scene, fashioning ways and means, for President Buhari, if they genuinely want the best for him, Nigerians and our Country, must avert their minds to this solemn counsel.
The change of baton is a wonderful moment to reform the institutions, strengthen and neutralise them from partisanship. It is not an opportunity to transfer such allegiances to new partisan forts.
I rest my case.
Oraye St. Franklyn, a strategic communicator and good governance advocate, writes from Port Harcourt, Rivers State. He tweets from @RealOraye. He is also on Facebook.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
