A Lift To Our System of Governance.

The United Kingdom has a parliament and government that is the envy of the world. In the face of deep seated differences, there is an objective to reach a conclusion that politically acceptable to the majority.

 I am talking about Brexit, a phenomenon that has sucked all the air out of the political discourse in the land.

In many ways Nigeria and the United Kingdom share a lot of similarities. Essentially the U.K. is made up of four nations, England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. During the Brexit debate, Theresa May said "no Prime Minister will ever preside over the breakup of the United Kingdom."

As in Nigeria there are grumblings as to how resources are shared to different areas of the UK, but what sets us apart is the level of leadership and accountability that exists in the UK.

This brings to full focus the Brexit debate over the past few days. On Wednesday the 27th of March 2019, the British parliament, wrested power from the Prime Minister to steer Brexit forward and provide an alternative to her moribund EU withdrawal agreement.

The parliamentarians voted on eight amendments and were unable to come up with a viable alternative, bringing to the fore the deep seated differences that exist in the parliament, and in the country.

The relevance of this is to show the maturity of the UK parliament and government. In the UK, citizens comment on the radio, lamenting that the UK has become a laughing stock the world over for their inability to come up with an acceptable Brexit plan.

I have grown up learning that the root of all our problems in Nigeria stem from colonialisation.

However as a people we should learn from the British the decorum, respect, and maturity shown when different sections of the same nation have fundamentally different views on a national issue.

Although political leadership demonstrate those views amongst themselves and are vehemently opposed to each other's views, they can still sit together and work at it to reach a conclusive finale that will be acceptable to the majority of British people.

We can be said to be operating different systems of government, however the demand for selflessness, vision and persistence to a cause for the benefit of all remains the same.