Elder statesman Dantata backs move to return to parliamentary system, says Nigeria in difficult situation

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An elder-statesman and business mogul, Aminu Dantata, has thrown his weight behind the move by some members of the House of Representatives to return to parliamentary system of government in Nigeria.

A bill seeking to abolish the presidential system of government and return to a parliamentary system had passed the first reading in the green chamber during Wednesday’s plenary.

The bill, titled: ‘The Bills proposing constitutional alterations for a transition to a parliamentary system of government’, was sponsored by sixty lawmakers.

Speaking on Thursday when a delegation of the sixty members paid him a consultation visit at his residence in Kano, Mr Dantata said parliamentary system of government is better in the country.

According to Daily Nigerian, Mr Dantata  said: “Parliamentary system is better, cheaper and less cumbersome. Presidential system is very expensive and cumbersome.

“I support you on this and pray for you to achieve this mission.

“As you are 60 for now, may your number increase and get more and more members to support this course.

“Our country has been in a difficult situation, so let’s try the parliamentary system. For your consultation to us, we are happy and appreciate that. We hope at the end, the country would have a better system.

“Look at now, 1 dollar is now N1,500. May Allah make it easy on us. May Nigeria be great again. May this insecurity bedevilling Nigeria and other countries be over,” Mr Dantata prayed.

Addressing journalists after a closed-door meeting with Mr Dantata, the leader of the delegation, Kingsley Chinda, a PDP member representing Obio/Akpor constituency of Rivers States, said considering the situation in the country, parliamentary system was the answer.

According to him, parliamentary system is less costly and less cumbersome.

He said: “Myself and 59 others sponsored 3 bills yesterday and the spirit and intent of those bills are to take our country from presidential system back to parliamentary system.

“And the reasons are simple, we cannot be doing the same thing and expect a different result. The way things are going and everybody is complaining, Nigerians are worried that the cost of governance is skyrocketing.

“And there is no magic that the President and his team can work to cut down drastically this cost.

“Even where we say we are forgoing all our allowances; you will find out it is just a drop in the ocean. So, we need to do something that is drastic because our country is dock-tailing.

“We sat down and concluded that one out of the several solutions to our problems should be to take a system of government that is manageable to our system. Considering our population, we need a lot of fund and then, we need to conserve these funds.

“Aside that, I can tell you that decision making is easier under a parliamentary system as against what we have today,” he said.

According him, “Accountability is better under a parliamentary system as against what we have today. I can tell you that, if we are operating a parliamentary system, with the number of motions and bills that have been taken on the floor of the house concerning the issue of insecurity, the Prime Minister would have been asked to vacate his seat and that would have happened. And that would make everybody to sit up.

“Resolutions of the National Assembly sometimes are not taken very seriously without blaming anybody but because of the nature of the system that we practice, that is why we are proposing that the time has come for us to work outside the box and take that leap and reintroduce a parliamentary system of government in this country that will help us begin to solve a lot of the problems that we have in Nigeria.

“We pray that Nigerians will understand our position and also support this position and urge their members (both Senators and House of Representatives) to key into this project.

“This project will rather consolidate our unity as a nation rather than threaten it,” he said.

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