A bill seeking to scrap the presidential system and return Nigeria to parliamentary system of government passed second reading at the House of Representatives on Thursday.

Co-sponsored by the House minority leader, Kingsley Chinda and 59 other lawmakers, the bill was listed among 31 amendments to the constitution bills at the plenary on Thursday.

The bill titled: “A Bill for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to Provide for the Office of the Prime Minister as Head of Government and the Office of President as Head of State and to Provide for a Framework for the Mode of Election to the Said Offices and for Related Matters (HB.1115),” passed its second reading as Benjamin Okezie Kalu, Deputy Speaker, presided over the plenary.

If passed into law, the bill will scrap the currently practised presidential system of government in which the president heads the executive arm of government, replacing it with a parliamentary system in which a prime minister will be head of the government.

Nigeria first practised the Westminster parliamentary system of government at independence in 1960 with Sir Tafawa Balewa as its prime minister.

After several military coups, Nigeria in 1979 had a new constitution that abolished the Westminster parliamentary system, replacing it with the American presidential system of government.