*Says it’s cheaper, less cumbersome
By Ahmad Sorondinki in Kano
Renowned business mogul, Alhaji Aminu Dantatta, has backed the bills by 60 members of the House of Representatives seeking constitutional alterations to return Nigeria to parliamentary system of government.
Dantata gave his endorsement when he received some of the lawmakers led by the Minority Leader of the House, Kingsley Chinda, who paid him a courtesy visit at his residence in Kano.
He said the parliamentary system was not only better for the country but, “it’s cheaper, less cumbersome, and would enhance stability and easy to run.”
The elder statesman explained that the “Parliamentary system is better and cheaper for Nigeria but the presidential system is very costly, especially with the current economic situation in the country.”
Dantata, a member of parliament in the First Republic, lauded the members for taking the bold step and expressed hope that the 60 lawmakers would get more members in the National Assembly to support the project.
“I hope and pray that you will get more members in the assembly to support the project,” he said.
He prayed that the current security challenges bedeviling the country would come to an end.
In an interview with journalists shortly after the courtesy visit, the leader of the delegation and Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Kingsley Chinda, said all the members who sponsored the Bill on Nigeria’s return to the parliamentary system remain committed in addition to being sincere in carrying out the project.
“There is no magic that the President and his team can work to cut down drastically this cost. Even where we say we are foregoing all our allowances, you will find out it is just a drop in the ocean. So we need to do something drastic…”
Mr. Chinda pointed out that accountability could be better under a parliamentary system than what is obtained today.
“I can tell you that, if we are operating a parliamentary system, with the number of motions and bills that have passed on the floor of the house concerning the issue of insecurity, the Prime Minister would have been asked to vacate his seat and that would have happened. And that would make everybody to sit up. Resolutions of the National Assembly sometimes are not taken very seriously, without blaming anybody, but because of the nature of the system that we practice,” he stated.
Providing further clarifications, the minority leader said, “we are proposing that the time has come for us to work outside the box and take that leap and reintroduce a parliamentary system of government in this country that will help us begin to solve a lot of the problems that we have in Nigeria.”
Chinda reiterated that the return of Nigeria to a parliamentary system was in the best interest of Nigerians and the country.
He thanked the elder stateman for his advice and input, adding that they will continue to draw from his wealth of experience.
