No fewer than 83 members of the National Assembly, under the auspices of the Parliamentary System Support Group, have called for a home-grown parliamentary system of government to replace the current presidential system in the country.

The lawmakers, who made the call on Monday at a national dialogue in Abuja, said this was necessary following the high cost of governance and lack of transparency and accountability in the current system.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Abdulsamad Dasuki (PDP-Sokoto) said it was the system used during the early period of independence.

He said it was disrupted by military coups, leading to the adoption of an American-inspired presidential system that has not met expectations.

Nigeria’s Constitution from independence introduced a parliamentary system of government – popularly known as the ‘Westminster Model’ – which lasted until January 1966, when the military took over power.

Mr Dasuki said a reflection on the over 25 years of democracy in Nigeria was a period that has tested our patience, optimism, and enduring hope for a better nation.

The lawmaker said that although Nigerians have nurtured and embraced the current democracy, it is not delivering the expected dividends.

“A closer look at our system reveals fractures that can no longer be ignored, dreams left unfulfilled, and gaps that beg to be filled. Now is the time to address these issues. Now is the time to rethink an escape route from this reality. Now is the time to set our minds on crafting a new path, a cure for the affliction that has transformed our democracy into a spectacle of pity.

“For years, we have argued and debated how to cure this affliction, but we must always remind ourselves that the core problem lies in the vehicle through which we experience this democracy: the current presidential system.

“Each election year, we invest our hopes and dreams into a system expected to uplift our people, only to find ourselves repeating the same wish after every cycle of four challenging years,” said Mr Dasuki.

He added, “Instead of a government that works for the people, we see one that serves public officials, a government that grows fat on bloated overheads, delivering scant dividends to its citizens. Clearly, we need an alternative. It must emerge from a genuine dialogue among Nigerians, especially between the young and the old, the new generation and those before them.”

The chairman of the occasion, Ango Abdullahi, recalled that the parliamentary system of government, as bequeathed to Nigeria by the British colonialists, was working until the military overthrew the government.

The elder statesman argued that the alternative later adopted had failed, saying that there was a need for answers to why it failed.

“Democracy is very elastic in meaning, so we can have our own home-grown democracy; adopting the American presidential system was our first mistake, and it is a system that does not fit into our cultural system and other values,” Mr Abdullahi said.

Also speaking, the former national secretary of the defunct Action Congress, Usman Bugaje, lauded the parliamentary group of lawmakers that brought the issue to the fore.

According to him, the last 25 years have not given Nigerians what they expected as poverty is deepening, insecurity is escalating with mind-boggling corruption.

He said that the idea of a home-grown system was in order and that anyone borrowing foreign systems would end up enslaved.

(NAN)