TheCable

The Parliamentary Advocacy Network (PAN), a civil society organisation (CSO), has kicked against a constitutional bill seeking to reintroduce the parliamentary system of government.

The bill, sponsored by 60 lawmakers in the house of representatives, was introduced in the parliament mill last week.

Nigeria currently practises a presidential system of government which enables a direct election of the president.

Under the parliamentary system, the legislature appoints a prime minister, with a less defined separation of powers.

Nigeria practised the parliamentary system of government after it gained independence in the first republic.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Sunday, Sunny Anderson and Fred Itua, PAN coordinator and general secretary, said the parliamentary system of government has a lot of flaws.

They said the parliamentary system is not suitable for Nigeria because it is a diverse and complex place.

“The Parliamentary Advocacy Network strongly believes that a return to the parliamentary system of government is not ideal and certainly not the best option for Nigeria,” they said.

“We have practiced that system of government before now, at pre-independence and in the first republic, and with the benefit of hindsight there were many flaws inherent in the parliamentary system that affected Nigeria, which one can argue actually led to the fall of the first republic.

“For a diverse and complex country like Nigeria, the best system of government is the presidential system anchored on a structure of federalism. Instead of switching from the presidential system to the parliamentary system of government, we at the Parliamentary Advocacy Network would rather call for a restructuring of our present federal structure to become more accountable to the people.

“The cost of running our democracy can equally be drastically reduced even while running the presidential system if only elected and appointed officials see public office as a call to service.”

They said the sponsors of the bill should work on ways to reduce the cost of governance in the presidential system.