By Atoyebi Nike
17th May, 2025
Former governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, has stated that the presidential system of government being practiced in Nigeria is unsuitable for the country.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, Cole argued that Nigeria must reconsider its current system of government and embrace a model that reflects its cultural and historical context. He said the American-style presidential system has not delivered accountability or built the institutions needed for Nigeria’s development.
“This American system that we call the Presidential system in Nigeria, we need to go and readdress it. We cannot import the parliamentary system of the UK, and it will not work here; we cannot import a presidential system, and it will not work here,” Cole said.
He explained that every successful nation adopts a political structure that suits its people, citing countries like China and several Arab nations that designed systems based on their unique identities rather than copying Western models. According to him, the failure of the current system is partly due to its vulnerability to exploitation by a few individuals, and its lack of strong institutions capable of holding leaders to account.
Cole further noted that Nigeria had an indigenous political structure before colonization and suggested that the country revisit its traditional governance models. He said the institutions being built today are modeled after British systems that do not align with Nigerian culture.
“Let us build an African, Nigerian-focused political system, and we will have it. We had a political system before the Europeans came, and we had a political system even when the slave trade was going on. So, what are we running away from? We know what to do,” he said.
