Revolution Not Possible In Nigeria – Bankole

SPEAKER, House of Representatives, Mr Dimeji Bankole, on Friday, foreclosed any kind of revolution in Nigeria. He said Nigeria will not experience the kind of revolution going on in some North Africa countries, citing the acceptance of democracy by the citizens as reason for his optimism.

The Speaker gave the assurance while responding to questions on the nation’s preparedness for such revolution as being experienced in North Africa from a delegation of the German Parliament.

In his response, Bankole said this was evident by the successful transitions between democratically-elected leadership in 2003 and 2007, adding that the North Africa’s experience was, therefore, not applicable to Nigeria.

The group, which was led on the visit by a member of the German Parliament, Herbert Frankenhauser, said it was on a familiarisation tour of Nigeria, especially the National Assembly to seek possible areas of collaboration.

The Speaker, represented by the Chairman, House Committee on Defence, Honourable Oluwole Oke, also ruled out the possibility of military intervention in Nigeria, saying that the nation’s armed forces had been highly professionalised.

“The armed forces have adopted democratic culture. They have been transformed, professionalised and deeply restricted to their professional duties,” he stated, adding that the military have regretted ever dabbling into governance based on the experiences of democracy in the country.

Also responding to a query on Nigeria ’s defence budget ratio to her Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Speaker explained that only about 10 percent of the national budget goes to defence.
He said since the nation was in a relative peace condition, her defence allocation mainly goes into training and retraining of personnel, and the country’s efforts at foreign peace keeping missions.

What democracy is he talking about? If my memory serves me correctly, Nigeria is an authoritarian regime. He should refrain from invalid assumptions.