A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara, Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo has declared that there was nothing bad in rotating the presidency among the geo-political zones of the country.
Oyedepo sad this on Thursday while speaking at the weekly ‘Political dialogue’ in Ilorin.
The political dialogue was organised by Nations Leadership Institute, Ilorin for over 50 young people from the 16 local government of Kwara.
The title of the paper presented at the dialogue was: “Politics as danger to democracy” was delivered by a media consultant, Malam Tunde Mohammed.
Oyedepo, who is the President of the Institute, said “rotational presidency is good; it must go with equity and justice.”
He said he was surprised when he heard Northern Governors and elders saying that rotational presidency was undemocratic.
“Why are they now saying that zoning is undemocratic? Were they not here when the whole thing started? Why is it today they say it is not democratic? Oyedepo asked.
Oyedepo, a lawyer said the stand of the Northern elders would make the Southerners angry more. According to him, there should be tolerance among the people of the federating units in the country.
“In a plural society like Nigeria, there must be tolerance, if you base everything on population as perceived, it will not work. A small fraction of people in a polity can cause problem for that country,” he added.
He was of the view that others should be allowed to enjoy the arrangement put in place since the advent of the current democratic
dispensation.
Oyedepo, who is also Chairman of Governing Council of Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti lamented that the present political arrangement
did not fully allow separation of power.
He said for democracy to really thrive in the country, separation of power should be fully entrenched. “There is no separation of power in here because legislative has been pocketed. No financial independence.
“Until all the tiers of government are financially independence, separation of power would be a mirage. In a good democracy, there should be separation of power; check and
balance,” Oyedepo said.
Earlier in his lecture, the guest lecturer, Malam Tunde Mohammed said politics and democracy were inseparable, adding: there can be no democracy without politics”.
Mohammed noted that the thing that the thing that enabled democracy was also the thing that undermined it.
