Deborah Akinyosoye
A bill seeking to return Nigeria to the parliamentary system of government passed second reading at the House of Representatives on Thursday.
The bill seeks to establish the office of the Prime Minister as Head of Government and the President as Head of State.
The proposed legislation was among the 32 constitutional amendment bills passed by the lawmakers during a plenary session presided over by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu.
The proposed legislation, sponsored by Minority Leader Kingsley Chinda and 59 others, seeks to alter the 1999 Constitution to introduce a parliamentary framework that will shift executive authority from the President to a Prime Minister elected by the legislature.
The bill is titled: ”A Bill for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Provide for the Office of the Prime Minister as Head of Government and the Office of President as Head of State and to Provide for a Framework for the Mode of Election to the Said Offices and for Related Matters.”
Recall that Nigeria previously operated a parliamentary system in the First Republic, with Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa serving as Prime Minister and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe as the ceremonial President.
The system, which lasted from 1960 until the 1966 military coup, allowed executive authority to reside in the Prime Minister, who was chosen from the majority party in parliament, while the President served as the Head of State.
In February 2024, some 60 members of the House of Representatives sought amendments to the 1999 Constitution to transition from the current presidential system to the parliamentary system of government.
Led by a lawmaker representing Lagos State under the All Progressives Congress, Wale Raji, the lawmakers identified the need to reduce the cost of government and foster robust policy debates, among other reasons, for demanding a return to the parliamentary system.
The lawmakers, drawn from different party affiliations, anchored their positions on the need to adopt a parliamentary system at the Federal, State, and Local Government levels.