By Ismaila Isa
Abuja
An elder statesman and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Robert Clarke, has advocated the return of military rule as “a step to save Nigeria from imminent collapse.”
The elder statesman, who was speaking on the breakfast programme of Channels Television, said the country was “besieged by a group of gangsters in leadership positions at various levels of government and requires urgent intervention by any means to purge the system of corruption and malaise.”
Clarke, who noted that the presidential system of government was too expensive to maintain, also advocated a change to parliamentary system of government which he said “is less expensive and more accountable.”
While condemning the level of corruption in the country, he lamented that the fact less than 1000 Nigerians (the president, members of National Assembly, Governors and ministers) currently control over 90 per cent of the resources of the country remains unsustainable and would only plunge Nigerian into further crisis unless something is done urgently.
The elder statesman who said he was not calling for a coup in the country, however, told the panel on Channels TV that he would welcome a military interregnum that could last about two years to purge the nation of what he described as “political gangsters” currently holding Nigerians hostage.
