Parliamentary System Of Government Will Reduce Volatility – Hon. Osonwa

A member of the House of Representatives, representing, the Arochukwu/Ohafia federal constituency, (Abia – LP) Ibe Osonwa, is one of the 60 lawmakers, who introduced a bill seeking a transition from a Presidential system of government to a Parliamentary democracy

The Lawmaker, while featuring on an AIT Television programme, ‘Focus Nigeria’, said the parliamentary system of government is what Nigeria needs at this time to reduce volatility and bring the people together, where the actions of the government are not decided solely by the executive.

Ibe reiterated that the presidential system introduced by the military does not reflect the will of the people and does not allow the people to be part of the conversation and decision-making.

“If a parliamentarian is a minister, and he takes a decision, he hears not just from the president, but from a shadow cabinet made up of the opposition and at the same time he hears from his constituents, I personally think this is the way forward.

Speaking on the instability and volatility that come from a Parliamentary system of governance, the lawmaker stressed that many countries of the world that run this system of government are time-bound.

“In the UK, what normally happens is that you have your government, the government has a term in which it must run, but in the middle of it, it can always call for snap elections

“If we can set up a government and agree that it is time and term bound to 4 years, it is now within the parties to deal with their issues. If we as the Parliament are unhappy with the Prime Minister, a vote of no confidence is called, the same party has the right to pick a new Prime Minister within the parties, but no elections will be required, it will be an internal process within the Parliament

“Again, we have the opportunity to decide how we want it to go, the decision is with Nigerians.”

Asked if the process will be subjected to a referendum, the lawmaker said the bill is a conversation starter, and one of the fundamentals of the bill is to consolidate elections in the country.

“Why should we have two elections, why can’t we have them all in one day, that will reduce the cost of elections, there will be no need for multiple elections.

“This also affords a homogeneous approach towards elections,” he said.

Pointing to the advantages of the Parliamentary system of governance, the lawmaker said the current cost of governance through MDAs, paying Minister’s salaries will be eliminated.

“When you eliminate the cost of paying Minister’s salaries, you are consolidating all your salaries to the same salaries you are paying your parliamentarians, that eliminates that cost all altogether, it does not exist anymore, that is cheaper for us

The lawmaker said the bill is proposed to take effect in 2031 even though the next elections will be in 2027 because there are cascading effects, which the bill will first allow Nigerians to get used to the changes before implementation.

“What we are proposing has cascading effects, so we have spoken about having elections on one day, we haven’t done this before, we need to perfect that act, so if we give time to everyone to get used to what it is that we want to do, it’s perfect, it allows everyone eases

“This is a collaborative effort, we are not against or going at anybody, all we are trying to do is to perfect something and to move our country forward, so giving it time is allowing everybody to get used to the system, get used to the discussion, everybody understands the scope

“If we go into a parliamentary system right now, a lot of people, will still not understand what we are talking about, he said.

“Some believe that whatever system that we are running, whoever is at the top can not work if there’s no transparency and accountability, but we are actually going to explain, educate all of us on how these things will work.

“So therefore when it gets to that time everybody knows their role and responsibilities, both the people that are going to be within the offices and the citizens charging them and voting for them

“Elections in one day are going to be a game changer, it allows everything to get settled once and for all.

THE WHISTLER recalls that the Bill was presented earlier before the House and the implication is that, if the bill scales through, the country will now have a prime Minister as the Head of government and other elective appointed offices to be chosen from the Parliament.