Former Acting National Chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, Chief Suarau Alani Bankole, has insisted that neither democracy nor military rule is Nigeria’s best system of government.
New Telegraph reports that Bankole, the father of the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, opined that Nigeria must operate a system of government other than military rule.
According to him, such a system of government must consider the Nigerian people’s peculiarities and be best suited to resolve the country’s challenges.
Bankole stated this on Friday, shortly after he was unveiled by the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, as the Apana of Egbaland at Ake palace in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital.
The octogenarian noted that Nigeria must build strong institutions supporting good governance.
His words, “I do not agree that democracy is the best for Nigeria. In Saudi Arabia, there is no democracy; the people there are very happy they are making progress, they are satisfied, and their resources are properly distributed.
“However, the military government is not an alternative to democracy, but I think the world is changing. I think people should start to think about the best government other than democracy, but definitely not autocracy.
“The only good thing about democracy is that the leaders can never be there forever.
“The way they practice democracy in America is different from the way they practice democracy in the UK, and the two are quite different from the way we practice it in Africa because there are institutions of checks and balances which are always in the constitutions of those countries.”