Parliamentary system best for Nigeria – Dantata

• Change of system not solution – NNPP

An elder statesman and renowned business mogul, Aminu Dantata, has said the parliamentary system of leadership being advocated by some legislators is the best for the country.

Daily Trust reported how 60 members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday sponsored three bills proposing alterations to the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (as amended) to transition from the current Presidential System to the Parliamentary System of government by 2031.

Endorsing the move on Thursday when some members of the House of Representatives led by the Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, paid him an advocacy visit at his residence in Kano, Dantata said he agrees with the lawmakers that the parliamentary system is better for the country.

Dantata, who was an elected representative as far back as 1961, prayed for success for the lawmakers in their quest to return the country to the parliamentary system from its current presidential system.

“Thank you very much for coming to my house. I pray Allah assists you in this gigantic job you take for the interest of the country. I pray for Allah’s guidance and wisdom to continue to work until we succeed.

“The parliamentary system is better for this country, and it is cheaper and less cumbersome than the presidential system, which is very costly and very difficult to manage.

“I pray Allah gives you the wisdom and guides you to achieve this marvellous job you have taken to achieve for this country,” he said.

“The 60 people we have now, by the grace of God, we are going to continue to get more and more. I pray Allah should help us; Nigeria needs a different atmosphere than what we have today. Our country has been highly underdeveloped. So, we are praying Allah gets us out of this problem,” he added.

Earlier, the Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, explained that the reason for the quest was that they believe “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 for the president and his team to work to cut down on this cost drastically.

“Even when 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 dovetailing.”

Meanwhile, reacting to the move by the lawmakers, the National Publicity Secretary of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Yakubu Shendam, said it was unfortunate that the APC wants to be the last party to produce the president of the country by attempting to alter the system in place.

He said, “If the parliamentary system worked for Nigeria, we wouldn’t have adopted the presidential system. It is because we haven’t deepened and strengthened our democratic systems, that is why we don’t even know what system to operate. We cannot continue to borrow different systems of government from different countries. Nigeria must look for a way to make the system work and not to borrow systems from the British or USA.”

He said when institutions are not working, whatever system that is practiced would not work, adding that corruption in government, impunity, suppression of the rule of law and the subversion of the electoral process by greedy politicians were the problems of Nigeria and not the kind of system that is being practised.

He, however, said his party has the solution to Nigeria’s problems and, when given the chance, they would prove themselves as the party working for the interest of Nigerians.