By Fidel Ozugha
The bill, co-sponsored by the House Minority Caucus Leader, Ogundu Kingsley Chinda, representing Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency Rivers State, and 59 other lawmakers, was among 31 Constitution amendement bills passed for second reading at the plenary presided over by the Deputy Speaker, BeNjamin Okezie Kalu on Thursday.
This bill, if passed and implemented, will scrap the presidential system and return Nigeria to parliamentary system of government.
“A Bill for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to Provide for the Office of the Prime Minister as Head of Government and the Office of President as Head of State and to Provide for a Framework for the Mode of Election to the Said Offices and for Related Matters (HB.1115),” was the title given to it.
If passed into law, the bill will scrap the currently practised presidential system of government in which the president heads the executive arm of government, replacing it with a parliamentary system in which a prime minister will be head of the government.
Nigeria first practised the Westminster parliamentary system of government at independence in 1960 with Sir Tafawa Balewa was the Prime Minister when Nigeria first practised this form of parliamentary system of government. This form of democracy ushered the Nigeria’s independence in 1960 when Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was made the Governor General.
Poor management of it caused a lot crisis which ushered in the first military coup and several other ones. Thus Nigeria opted for American presidential form of democracy in which the highest office holder is the president. The new order will require a serious overhauling of the whole system even with a new constitution and structure and an overhaul of the whole system.
