The Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Rep. Kingsley Chinda (PDP-Rivers) has called for a return to the parliamentary system of government.
Chinda, who made the call on Monday in Abuja, said that there was a need to practice a homegrown parliamentary system of government to address challenges facing the country.
The lawmaker explained that the current Presidential system of government was copied without recourse to native background.
According to him, the current system is skewed towards failure, considering our background, our experiences and our diversity which should be an advantage to us.
“When you look at the places where systems of government are copied from, they consider their culture, they consider their beliefs; they consider their society in adopting a system of government.
“But in Nigeria, we either copy from the UK or we copy from the U.S., without recourse to our background. And that is why we are asking for a homegrown system of government.
“We must twist it to consider our peculiar background. And that is why we say the time has come for us to move forward,” he said.
Chinda said that government after government had made efforts to cut the cost of governance in Nigeria.
He said that efforts made to merge agencies of government and to slash allowances and salaries of public office holders had not been achieved.
According to him, it is all motion without movement. We must do something fundamental if we want to move forward.
Chinda said that efforts had been made to study why the parliamentary system practiced in the first republic collapsed, saying that it was as a result of ignorance.
He said that the parliamentary system is cost effective and self-cleansing, as it does not require much to remove a corrupt officer and make people in public office to sit up. (NAN)
By EricJames Ochigbo
