Dialogue With Nigeria BY AKIN OSUNTOKUN “The Federal Military Government hereby decrees as follows: Subject to the provisions of this Decree, Nigeria shall on 24th May 1966 (in this decree referred to as ‘the appointed day’) cease to be a Federation and shall accordingly as from that day be a Republic, by the name of the Republic of Nigeria, consisting of the whole of the territory which immediately before that day was comprised in the Federation- The Unification Decree: No.

34 of 1966” —General JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi? Of late, I have repeatedly read the citations of two political leaders as “most powerful president”.

They are Presidents Donald Trump and Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the United States and Nigeria respectively.

The reference (most powerful President) has been characteristic of the incumbency of both men in their United States and Nigerian jurisdictions.

For the former, the jurisdiction, de facto, actually transcends the US to encompass the whole world in a negative reenactment of Pax Americana.

Max Weber defined power as the ‘’ ‘chance that an individual in a social relationship can achieve his or her own will even against the resistance of others’.

Others have similarly defined it as ‘the capacity to change the probability of action’.

In the theory of power, a modern state is defined by the attribute of sovereignty over a given territory and monopoly over the power of coercion therein.

Mindful of Lord Acton’s refrain that ‘power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely’, I argue that power, by itself, is neutral and it is not intrinsically a corrupting agency or instrument.

It is subject to its application by incumbent wielders of power.

According to the theory of benevolent dictatorship, authoritarian leadership can be exercised for the positive transformation of society, as exemplified by China.

The use or abuse of power follows from the logic and dialectic that every idea poses an alternative, to every thesis is an antithesis, every tendency potentially generates its own contradiction.

The presumption of a functional society (and design polity) is to anticipate, mitigate and preclude the tendency for abuse of power through deliberate institutionalisation of an inbuilt system of checks and balances as, for instance, was the practice in the old Oyo empire.

Yoruba Antiquity Argues Sklar, “In theory and in practice, the powers of the Yoruba kings were regulated by custom and limited institutionally by countervailing organs of the state.

Unlike the Northern emirates, the Yoruba monarchies were constitutional rather than despotic.

All decisions of the Alafin (King) of Oyo required the approval of his council of chiefs.

In former times, a gift of parrot’s eggs from the leader of the council was a sign to the Alafin that his death was desired by the chiefs and the people.

Invariably the Alafin complied by taking poison, so the threat of a dread gift was a safeguard against tyrannical rule.

As remarked in an authoritative study, the proscription of this custom by the British “dislocated the checks and balances of the old constitution.”.

Another unique traditional check on power excess in Yoruba antiquity is the instrument of women naked protest.

“Women naked protest is a powerful, traditional, and often last-resort tool of resistance, particularly in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, used to demand justice and express extreme outrage.

By exposing their bodies, women—often mothers and grandmothers—transform themselves from passive subjects into active agents, using shame and cultural curses to confront authorities”.

A variant of this quaint tradition was the specific incident of the activism of the Abeokuta Women Union, AWU, (spearheaded by the nationalist leader, Mrs Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti in the mid to late 1940s).

‘In mid- October 1946, she led nearly a thousand women in a march to the palace of Alake in Abeokuta to demand the abolition of direct taxation’.

the women used soft porn songs such as the one translated below to ridicule the Alake: “Idowu [Alake], for a long time you have used your penis as a mark of authority that you are our husband.

Today we shall reverse the order and use our vagina to play the role of husband on you… O you men, vagina’s head will seek vengeance.” The potency of the protests is evident in the resultant abdication of Alake (paramount ruler) of Abeokuta.

Between Nigeria and the United States It is not a coincidence that both Nigeria and the US share the commonality of the presidential system of government in which the executive power is concentrated and consolidated in the President unlike the Westminster (parliamentary) model in which the executive power is vested in the Prime Minister and members of the cabinet under the principle of collective responsibility.

The model is further distinguished by the fact that they (cabinet) are members of the parliament where the Prime minister....