Fashola believes Nigerians expect the right thing from the wrong place because they’re not sufficiently familiar with the constitution of their country.
Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola has explained the reason Nigerians do not seem to love their presidents until they are dead.
The minister said Nigerians’ poor understanding of the powers of a president is the main reason the citizens don’t love their presidents while in office.
The former governor of Lagos State also blamed this on lack of proper interaction between the president and citizens.
He said this while speaking as a guest speaker at the Yoruba Tennis Club public lecture with the theme, ‘What can the President do for me?’
He said, “Some say the office of the Vice President is just a spare tyre, but the statement is not factual, and that the VP has no power of his own is a lack of knowledge of the constitution.
“If you go through the constitution, you will find out that the office of the president is referred to 48 times. 23 instances refer to the power the President can exercise, nine of those powers are subject to the National Assembly, four instances refers to powers exercised by the president subject to other institutions, nine instances refer to the President function and duty, three instances refers to restrictions on the power of the President so, how is Nigerian President the most powerful in the world? So, some are conflicting the power of the president with the function of the President which is misleading.
“Some youths demanded during the EndSARS protest that the president should sack the IGP, but I educated them that the president has no such power and that the only power he has in that regard is to give lawful direction.
“Of all the President we have had, Nigerians never loved any one of them while in office, we seem to love them after they have left or died, why is that so, to me, the answer is lack of depth in interaction.
He further said Nigerians were not sufficiently familiar with the constitution, adding that they expected the right thing from the wrong place.
“I carried out a research and what Nigerians expectations are and they I discovered the major issues are in security, education, healthcare, transportation, water supply, employment, housing and electricity. Do they approximate to the function of the president,? he asked.
The minister, therefore advised that for citizens to understand what the president could do, they ought to bear in mind the nature of their country’s political arrangement.
