...Assembly on The March Again
According to the representatives, if adopted at the federal, state and local government levels of administration, the parliamentary system of government will drastically cut down cost of governance and be more inclusive than the prohibitive presidential system, which has left “fewer resources for crucial areas like infrastructure, education and healthcare, and consequently hindering the nation’s development progress and the excessive powers vested in the members of executive, who are appointees and not directly accountable to the people.”
Expectedly, prominent Nigerians and groups greeted the call for change of government with support. On a personal level, First Republic parliamentarian and renowned businessman, Alhaji Aminu Dantata, echoed the view of the movers of the project that, “the parliamentary system is better and cheaper for Nigeria, but the presidential system is very costly, especially with the current economic situation in the country,” and he received a delegation of the movers of the bill led by the Minority Leader of the House, Kingsley Chinda, who paid him a courtesy visit at his residence in Kano.
Long-time advocate of restructuring, Afenifere, hailed the move but noted that while the proposed change in the political system from presidential to parliamentary “is okay, what the country needs now is not just a shift from one system of government to another.”
The group added that as things were, Nigeria’s sociopolitical problem “goes beyond the system of government being run. It weighs more heavily on the structure. This is why we are insisting that the country must be restructured. Any tinkering with the constitution that fails to tinker with the present structure would be cosmetic.”
The Pan-Yoruba political organisation disagreed with the reps on the amendment date of 2031, saying that once accepted, the new structure of government can be test-run in state polls coming up in 2026, ahead of the general election in 2027.
Afenifere said the template for the project should be a synthesis of the 1963 Republican Constitution, the Report of 2014 Conference under former President Goodluck Jonathan and the APC Committee Report on Restructuring led by former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el- Rufai, under ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.
It called on the National Assembly to put these reports together along with the 1963 Constitution and come up with something that would be in line with the present reality for public debate
Afenifere restated its call for the amendment of the 1999 Constitution “to make Nigeria to practise true federalism which enables constituent regions to be able to exercise powers over their own affairs in general times as we had it when we had regional governments.”
Like Dantata, Afenifere said the Parliamentary System is cost-saving, makes government to be accountable, does not encourage power to be usurped by an individual, among other benefits and the current system that thrives on the basis of winner-takes-all.
ROAD TRAVELLED BEFORE
Experimenting with different models in an attempt to find an enduring and workable system of government for Nigerians has a dull history that is fraught with structural uncertainties.
As recently as 2018, a similar bill calling for change from the presidential to parliamentary system of government was moved in the House of Representatives and supported by 71 members across political parties. Nothing came out of it.
In fact, the regrets over the shortcomings of the presidential system prompted the 1994/95 National Constitutional Conference sponsored by the late Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, to recommend an American-type presidential system, but with multiple vice-presidents.
But the Abacha regime approved a type of government similar to the French model: A parliamentary government with a president and a prime minister. It differs, however, from the conventional parliamentary system because the president possesses enormous powers, including the power to appoint the prime minister and to dissolve the parliament.
Abacha’s successor, Gen Abubakar Abdulsalami (retd.) threw the project out and brought back the presidential system that debuted with the Shehu Shagari Administration in 1979.
The lawmakers are convinced that the new project will work out well. One of the sponsors of the new bill, Abdussamad Dasuki (Kebbe/Tambuwal Federal Constituency, Sokoto State), on Friday evening knocked the presidential system that replaced the parliamentary system of the First Republic, describing it as “a new system of government, theoretically fashioned after the presidential system of the United States, but in practice imbibed the uttermost attributes of military rule.”
Nigerians, Dasuki said, were more than willing to support a consensus and coalition-based system that would put the best among their elected representatives forward for governance at the risk of being booted out of office.
Deputy spokesperson of the House of Representatives, Philip Agbese, representing Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), earlier spoke in support of the public-inspired amendments for which the National Assembly has received 40 proposals from Nigerians.
Agbese said the National Assembly is ready to go the extra mile to bring lasting peace to the country, even if it means tinkering with the constitution.
He said, “When we resumed from the last recess, the Speaker mentioned the issue of security, saying it must be tackled as long as the country is concerned.
“Expressing regret that at present farmers are unable to go to farm, he gave the assurance that the lawmakers would all play their part to end this crisis by rejigging the security architecture to guarantee the safety of lives and property in this country.”
Confirming this information, the Deputy Speaker of the House, Benjamin Kalu, who said that this would be the sixth time the National Assembly would be embarking on Constitutional Amendment since 1999, underscored the point that pressure from Nigerians, due to the prevailing social and economic challenges in the country, has made it mandatory for this fresh round of amendment.
Kalu, who chairs the House Constitution Review Committee, said, “We are well aware of our present challenging circumstances as a nation. The twin challenges of insecurity and economic difficulties could tamper with the confidence of our citizens. It is therefore our constitutional responsibility to respond to the 40 bills so far proposed and also to attend to the duty of government to ensure the security and welfare of the citizens as provided by the Constitution.”
He also disclosed that some amendment proposals, such as the creation of additional seats for women in the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly that created heated debates among lawmakers and had to be discarded for peace to reign, would be revisited.
SIXTH AMENDMENT
This is the sixth time that the National Assembly will be embarking on a review of the Constitution since 1999.
In the Fifth Alteration to the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the 9th National Assembly made some improvements. These include the bill to liberate the judiciary and legislature from state governors by granting them financial autonomy, putting railways on the concurrent list so that state governments can run this means of transportation and most notably, granting state governments the power to generate, distribute and transmit electricity.
“The belief that the government does not have the resources to fulfil its obligations to the people is erroneous. Our leaders have been profligate with our resources. Instead of applying the available resources for the benefit of the people, they have been engaged in squandering them for their own selfish ends largely because there is no compelling legislation that would warrant performance of these obligations
This is in line with the provision in Section 13 of the Concurrent Legislative List under the Second Schedule of the Constitution.
Although overdue, many Nigerians see the amendment on electricity generation, distribution and transmission as a most welcome relief.
This is one area that has kept the nation in darkness and under-developed for many years, no doubt. Without power, many businesses have either died or relocated to other countries, thereby worsening the unemployment rate and poverty in Nigeria today.
Although many states are yet to demonstrate that they have the capacity to take advantage of this devolution of power and provide regular electricity supply to their citizens in order to minimise this economic loss by reviving industries, generating employment and reducing poverty, some of them, like Lagos, have gone ahead to explore the transportation aspect of the devolution to build railway lines that will ease the challenges facing its ever growing urban population. Others like Akwa Ibom run profitable airlines.
In a presentation made available to THEWILL, Barrister Mack Ogbamosa called on the National Assembly to look into many critical areas “if we are actually serious about practising true federalism under a democracy in Nigeria.
According to him, these areas are restructuring through resource control; state/ community police as solution to insecurity; justiciability/ enforceability of Chapter II of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
On the first point, Ogbamosa said that states should be allowed to have control of the mineral resources in their territories by amending the Constitutional provision that vests ownership and control of all mineral resources in the country in the hands of the Federal Government.