MY MODEL PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM FOR
NIGERIA
Having come to the conviction that the
presidential system is incapable of taking us to
the Eldorado because of the following:
1. The resources required in campaigning for
presidential/governorship contest is enormous
and therefore encourage corruption. It is
therefore difficult for the government at all levels
to fight corruption.
2. The people so elected become handicapped
because of the vested interests and financiers
who would naturally insist on recouping their
investments.
3. Most of the time people who couldn’t have
won elections in their various homes end up
occupying the coveted offices either as the
President or Governors. For instance, Obasanjo
was roundly rejected in his home town and by
his people who should know him better in all the
times he contested. TA Orji was said to have
won election from prison. A sickly YarAdua was
imposed impose on the country by power outside
his Katsina constituency. Alhaji Shehu Shagari
wouldn’t have become president if the NPN had
conducted free and fair primaries even within the
more vocal contestant from the North.
4. The presidential system as being practiced in
Nigeria makes it difficult for the government to
take decisive action on dicey matters such as
the Fulani versus farmers due to political
expediencies. Again one can look at the inability
of Obasanjo to act decisively in the wake of the
Sharia crises in part of the North.
5. The presidential system is non-democratic
particularly in the composition of the Executive.
All the Ministers/Commissioners involved in
taking critical decision on behalf of the people
are unaccountable to the people. That is why it
is easy for them to churn out anti people
policies.
6. Votings for the presidents and governors
usually follow religious and or tribal patterns.
This is not peculiar to Nigeria alone.
7. Parliamentary system is more representative
of and closer to the people,
There are many other reasons. Consequently, I
believe that we can adopt a bicameral
Parliamentary system for the central government
and unicameral parliament for state and local
governments.
The central parliament shall comprise Council of
Elder Statemen and House of the People. The
state shall have House of Assembly and the local
governments shall have the Councils.
COMPOSITION OF THE COUNCIL OF ELDER
STATEMEN
The Council of Elder Statemen shall be
composed of not more 300 persons comprising
of:
1. 2 most senior traditional rulers from each
state of the federation and 1 from the FCT = 73
traditional rulers. This position will remain
hereditary. However, at the demise of a
traditional ruler who is a member of this house,
the traditional rulers from the state may elect
another traditional ruler to replace the deceased.
2. Persons found worthy to be so honoured with
a membership of the house having served
diligently to the highest office in his career and
left without blemish such as:
a. Retired Chief Justice who served for minimum
of 5 years
b. Retired President of the Supreme Court who
must have been a Justice of the Supreme Court
for at least 10 years
c. Retired President of the Appeal Court who
must have been a judge in the Appeal court for
at least 10 years.
d. Retired Military Officer, who rise to become
Service Chief and Chief of Defense Staff and
served in those capacities for at least 4 years.
e. A retired Inspector General of Police who
served for a minimum of 5 years in that capacity.
f. Head of any para military agency who served
in that capacity for at least 5 years.
g. Any member of the parliament who won
election into the House in 5 successive
elections.
h. A prime minister who served in that capacity
for at least 2 tenures.
i. A governor of Central Bank who served for 10
years under different administration.
j. The Head of Federal Service who served in
that capacity for 6 years.
k. Any academia who had been the National
President of ASUU and becomes a Vice
Chancellor of a University for 2 tenures.
l. Any other person found worthy in character to
be a member of the house as may be suggested
by the prime minister supported by 2/3 majority
of the House of the People.
m. Any person desirous of becoming member of
the House of the People shall first of all resign
his membership of the House of Royals.
3. The Head of State shall be elected by all
members of the Council of Elder Statesmen from
among the 73 Traditional rulers grouped into the
6 geo-political zones of the country. Any
monarch wishing to become Head of State must
have ensure peace in his domain in the last 10
year.
4. As far as practicable, the Head of State shall
not come from the same Zone as the prime
minister.
5. The Head of State shall hold office rotationally
for a period of 4 years coinciding with the
parliamentary election years.
6. The palace of the ruling monarch shall be the
administrative headquarters of the House for the
period.
7. The Council of Elder Statesmen shall only
receive allowances derived from performing
duties related to their membership of the
Council.
FUNCTION AND POWERS OF THE COUNCIL OF
ELDER STATEMEN
1. The House shall be responsible for the
conduct of all elections through INEC.
2. The Head of State shall invite the prime
minister elected by the House to form
government
4. The House shall scrutinize the budget and
every other Bill as passed by the House of the
People; the Head of State may sign it
immediately or offer advice as appropriate.
However, the Head of State shall sign the
budget/bill if it is returned the second time from
the House of the People.
5. The House shall receive foreign dignitaries
such as foreign Heads of State and Government,
Ambassadors and High commissioners and
ushered him to the presence of His Majesty the
Head of State in his palace.
6. The Head of State shall receive/offer such
Ambassadors and High Commissioners staff of
office before they would resume office in
Nigeria. The Head of State shall also present
staff of offices to Nigerian Ambassadors and
High Commissioners to foreign countries having
been so nominated by the Prime Minister.
7. The Head of State shall also announced the
expelling of such ambassador and termination of
all recognition of a foreign country on the advice
of the prime minister presented in the palace
and in the presence of at least 2/3 membership
of the House of Royals, 40 of whom must be
traditional rulers.
8. The Head of State shall proclaim the
commencement and dissolution of the House of
the People. However, for as much as possible,
elections must be conducted within the life span
of existing the parliament.
9. The House of Royals shall stand as
Reviewing/Approving House on Death Sentence
passed by any court of the land except on cases
for which the Supreme Court has passed
Judgment. In addition the Head of State shall
have the power of Prerogative of Mercy.
THE HOUSE OF THE PEOPLE
1. The House of the People shall be composed
of not more than 500 members, with each
member representing about 350,000 people
elected from a single constituency that is as
homogenous as possible.
2. A member that is qualified to be elected as a
member of House of Assemblies shall be
qualified to contest for membership of the House
of the People.
3. Members may be sponsored by a political
party or he/she may stand as independent
candidate.
4. The House of the People may carry out all
legislative functions except those ascribed to the
House of Royals.
5. The House of the People shall on the first
sitting after the general elections elect the
Speaker of the House and other principal staff of
the House.
6. After the election of the Speaker, the House
shall dissolve into party caucus and formed 2
major alliances for the purpose of forming the
government.
7. The party with the majority shall thereafter
elect the prime minister from among them while
the opposition will also elect its shadow prime
minister.
8. The Head of State shall thereafter formally
invite the elected prime minister to form the
cabinet.
9. The House shall make laws on all matters on
the exclusive legislative list.
10. The House shall hold weekly public
interactive session with the cabinet members
presided over by the speaker of the House.
11. Except during interactive session with
Cabinet members, when members of the cabinet
would be expected to sit separately from other
members to answer questions, any cabinet
member sitting in any other business of the
parliament shall sit as an ordinary member of the
House.
12. A vote of no confidence on the prime
minister or any other cabinet member by 2/3
majority of the House shall lead to the removal
of that person.
13. A vote of no confidence on the entire cabinet
shall lead to the dissolution of the House.
THE CABINET
1. The cabinet shall be made up of the Prime
minister and other Ministers selected from
members of the House of the People
2. The Prime Minister shall select other
members of Parliament to work with him as
Ministers.
3. The composition of the Cabinet shall be such
that each State of the Federation is represented.
4. The Prime Minister may appoint any member
outside the Parliament as a Cabinet Member
where he feels that such person expertise is
required or in order encourage Gender Equality.
Such appointment would have to be ratified by
2/3 majority of the House. The unelected
Cabinet Members shall not be more than 1/6 of
the Cabinet Members.
5. The cabinet is the executive branch of the
government.

cc lalasticlala Front page please

Bros, take sometme to organize this thing with subheadings and paragraphs

Nice bro, but I don't buy the "House of Royals" idea. A Unicameral legislative house should be fine.