Former Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, has backed calls for Nigeria to abandon the presidential system of government and return to the parliamentary system.
Aregbesola, who said this at a National Dialogue on Home-Grown Parliamentary System in Abuja on Monday, 11 November, 2024, said he is opposed to the executive system of government currently being practiced in Nigeria, insisting that the arrangement in the parliamentary system is best suited for a country like Nigeria.
“If you go on believing that an individual, no matter how beautiful, no matter how good, could have the capacity to govern 120 million people all alone without checks, we are joking. So, by that consideration alone, I am opposed to the executive system of government.
“I believe the collective arrangement which the parliamentary system guarantees is best for a nation like Nigeria if indeed we are committed to advancing the interest of the large population and mass of our people,” the immediate past Minister of Interior said.
Recall that last February, a group of lawmakers in the House of Representatives brought a Bill seeking amendments to the 1999 Constitution to transit from the current Presidential System to the Parliamentary System of government.
The group made up of about 60 lawmakers said the transition was necessary to reduce the cost of government in the face of dwindling revenue.
The bill titled, ‘The Bills Proposing Constitutional Alterations for a Transition to Parliamentary System of Government,’ was sponsored by the House Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, and 59 others.
The Bill was read on the floor of the House during the plenary session in Abuja on Wednesday, 14 February, 2024.
A Parliamentary system is a form of government having the real executive power vested in a cabinet composed of members of the legislature who are individually and collectively responsible to the legislature.
