Political economist Prof Pat Utomi says the parliamentary democracy will increase accountability of public office holders and reduce cost of governance.
“A parliamentary form of government is clearly so much more cost-effective for a democracy than presidential type system where you have to run around the entire country,” Utomi said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Thursday.
The thought leader said in parliamentary democracy, tyrants won’t become leaders, noting that thriving democracies in the world practice parliamentary democracy.
He said people connect more with the parliamentary system of government than “detached ministers whom somebody brings from nowhere”.
Mid-February, talks of parlimentary democracy resurrected in Nigeria when a group of 60 lawmakers in the House of Representatives sought amendments to the 1999 Constitution to transit from the current presidential system to the parliamentary system of government.
The lawmakers said the transition has become necessary to reduce the cost of government in the face of dwindling revenue.
Titled, ‘The Bills Proposing Constitutional Alterations For a Transition To Parliamentary System of Government,’ the bill was sponsored by the House Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, and 59 others. The bill was read on the floor of the House during plenary in Abuja but has not progressed since the first reading six weeks ago.
Many prominent Nigerians have since joined the call for a transition to the parliamentary system of government.
Utomi said something has fundamentally gone wrong with the leadership philosophy in Nigeria with selfish leaders serving themselves through living opulent lifestyles rather than serving the people.
He said with parliamentary democracy, senseless spendings by leaders would be a thing of the past.
