PROPOSED BILL TO RETURN NIGERIA TO THE PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT NOW AT THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

A bill sponsored by 71 Honorable members of the Nigerian House of representatives seeking for Nigeria to revert back to a parliamentary system of Government is now under consideration in the House. It is not clear yet what motive is behind the proposal but it could be said to be informed by the effort of the proponents to meet the aspiration of Nigerians for the restructuring of the country.

Be it as it may, this bill has rekindled a fresh debate on whether or not a change over from the Presidential system of government to parliamentary system of government is part of what is required by Nigeria to sanitise her current decadent political system.

While it is laudable for the national assembly to take concrete step like this one towards structural and institutional changes that would make Nigeria better than it is now, cognisance should be taken of what constitute the real problems to Nigeria political system and address them headlong without rocking the boat.

 First, it should be noted that the adoption of the Presidential system of government in Nigeria is the bye product of our evolution into a united country in which a direct participation of every citizen in its developmental process will be assured.  Unfortunately, the system like the parliamentary system we had before it is being poorly implemented and unable to provide the desirable outcome. Is it the fault of a system that inits contents, is working perfectly well in other countries or the fault of Nigerian operators who flagrantly flout the tenets of the system and hereby render it in effective.

Our penchant is always for a system which can operate itself without our required input or sacrifice for the nurturing of the system to near perfection. And here we are thinking that the solution to our problem is jumping from one system to another.

The last constitutional conference in Nigeria which was a public debate highlighted many flaws in our political system most of which hinge upon the way we operate our system. Even if we operate any other system like the parliamentary system being proposed the same way, the result will definitely be the same.

The obvious advantage of presidential system is that it is less rancorous in decision making process than the parliamentary system of government and as such, decision making process is faster. A developing country like ours needs nothing less than a rancour free and fast decision making process. Another advantage of the presidential system is the principle of separation of power which engenders checks and balances. Where each of the three arms of government is allowed to operate freely and cooperation and collaboration exist among them, the capability of presidential system of government to advance good governance and rapid development is unparalleled to the parliamentary system.

The only area where the effect of presidential system of government is negative in Nigeria is in term of its cost. The gross demonetisation of politics in Nigeria is also not helping the matter here. The bicameral legislature at the state and Federal levels, and the retinue of Ministers, commissioners, advisers, special assistants, and other aids of the chief executives and legislators put heavy duty on the economy of a developing country like Nigeria. This is also where our lack of ingenuity and innovation incapacitate the system. Nothing stops the country over the years from cutting the cost of running our presidential system of government to make it more suitable for our condition. All in our thought is to always throw away the baby bath water with the baby itself. The question now is: will it be possible for us to run another alternative system without adapting it to our peculiar situation? My view is no! Why then can’t we look thoroughly into the presidential system and reform it in tune with our peculiar social, political and economic situation. Will it not be wiser to fashion out a Nigerian variant of Federalism as a giant of Africa rather than going out for an importation of another system which had equally failed us in the past?

What we need in term of political reforms are:

1. Demonetisation our political system. This can be done by putting the remuneration of political office holders within the limit of the civil service salary structure.
2. Amending the constitution to provide for a single tenure of five or six years for all our political offices in the executive and legislative arms of government in Nigeria.
3. Reducing drastically by constitutional provision, the number of Ministers,Commissioners, Advisers, Assistants and other aids of the chief executives and legislators at the Federal and State levels.
4. Devolution of some powers in the exclusive lists of the constitution to the state government as it has been recommended in the last constitutional conference of 2015.
5. Constitutional provision to empower the States to control greater parts of the resources within the states.
6. Removing the number of Local governments as one of the criteria for revenue allocation while the unit of Federation should be Federal and state governments.
7. Anti-corruption institutions should made independent of the executive and Legislature and be further strengthened to reduce the rots in our socio-political and economic system to the barest minimum.
8. Making a provision in our constitution to make it mandatory for the probing of every regime at the end of the tenure of that regime.
9. Establishing a training institution for proper and mandatory training of all political office seekers before they are entitled to assume any top political post in Nigeria
10. Raising up the academic qualifications of our political office holders from the present minimum of Primary six to a minimum of Ordinary National Diploma (OND)

While praising the  honourable members of the House of representatives of Nigeria for kick starting a constitutional amendment for the improvement of our political system, I strongly propose that their efforts and energy should be directed towards the improvement of our Presidential System of government rather than jettisoning it out rightly for the parliamentary system which our lack of ingenuity can make  to flop like the Presidential system which we have failed to use in favour of our development.

 Mufutau Olaoluwa (FNIM)

13/12/2018.