- The lawmakers cited the wastefulness that’s synonymous with the presidential system and the need to prune government costs
A bill to replace the current presidential system of government with the Westminster style parliamentary system has received a bipartisan backing from members of the House of Representatives.
At least sixty members of the green chamber on Wednesday proposed the bill to amend the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria that will herald the country’s return to the parliamentary system.
Wale Raji, a lawmaker from Lagos State in the All Progressives Congress, led the clutch of lawmakers who are sponsoring of the bill, which was read for the first time in the House of Representatives.
The lawmakers cited the wastefulness that’s synonymous with the presidential system and the need to prune government costs as well as robust and compelling policy debates as reasons for demanding a return to the parliamentary system.
One of the major differences between these two systems is that in a presidential system, the president is directly elected by the people, whereas in a parliamentary system, the legislature is supreme and elects a prime minister from among its members as the head of government.
The political party with the majority in the parliament usually form a government and get to appoint a prime minister that will lead the country.
There is a fusion of the legislature and the executive in the parliamentary system because ministers are also appointed from amongst members of the parliament.
Nigeria used the parliamentary system in the first republic between 1960 and 1966.
The bill, if passed, will however require the assent of the president to become law and be enshrined in the Constitution.
If the president declines to assent, the National Assembly can override his veto with the votes of two-thirds of the members