• House to produce PM
From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives is proposing that the President should be elected from the Senate and the Prime Minister from the House, if the bills to return the country to parliamentary system of government are passed into law.
The proposals also include the appointment of ministers from among members of the National Assembly, the election of governors and appointment of commissioners from among members of the state House of Assembly, as well as, the election of local government chairmen and vice chairman from among the councilors.
These proposals are contained in three bills, seeking to return the country to a parliamentary system of government, which are sponsored by the minority leader, Kingsley Chinda and 59 others. The House had, last Thursday, approved the three bills for second reading and referred them to its Committee on Constitution Review.
The “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)” is seeking to alter Sections 130, 132,147 and 148, as well as the deletion of Sections 131 and 135(2) of the Principal Act.
The country had operated a parliamentary system of government in the first Republic, prior to the first incursion of the military in 1966. In 1979, when Nigeria returned to civil rule, it adopted the presidential system of government, which is currently in operation in the country today.
The proposed legislations, if eventually passed into law, will create the office of President, who will be the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and the Prime Minister, who will be the Head of Government.This is in contrast to the presidential system where the President is elected directly by the electorates and appoint his ministers from outside the parliament.
Details of the bills obtained by Daily Sun, at the weekend, indicate that the proposed legislation is seeking the substitution of the existing Section 130 of the Principal Act, with a new Section 130, which provides that “(1) There shall be for the Federation a Prime Minister and a President. (2) The President shall be the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria while the Prime minister shall be the Head of Government.
“Section 132 of the Principal Act is altered by substituting the existing section ‘132’ for a new section ‘132’- (1) The President is to be elected from within the members of the Senate of the National Assembly, while the Prime Minister shall be elected from within the members of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly.”
Similarly, the bill titled “A Bill for An Act to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Cap C23 of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, to review the mode of electing the State Governors, Deputy Governors, and the appointment of the Commissioners of the states and for related matters,” is seeking to alter Sections 178, 179, 186,187 and 192 of the constitution.
It is proposing an alteration of Section 178 of the principal act by substituting the existing sub-section “(1)” with a new sub-section to read thus: “(1) The Governor shall be nominated by at least three members of the House of Assembly and elected by secret ballot at a meeting of the House of Assembly held to elect the Governor, and each member of the House shall be entitled to a single vote for the election of the Governor at such a meeting”; and by inserting, after the existing subsection “(1)”, a new sub- sections “(2)” and “(3)”- “(2) An election to the said office shall be held after the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly (in this Bill referred to as Presiding Officers).”
The proposed amendment to Section 186 of the Principal Act states “(1) There shall be for each state of the federation an office of the Deputy Governor of the State, who shall be nominated by at least three members and elected by secret ballot at a meeting of the House of Assembly held to elect the Deputy Governor, and each member of the House shall be entitled to a single vote in each ballot for the election of the Deputy Governor taken at such a meeting.”
The proposed Section 192 (2) of the Principal Act stipulates that: “ Any appointment to the office of Commissioner of the Government of a State shall be made from within the members of the House of Assembly.”
Also, the third bill titled “ A Bill For An Act to alter the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Cap C23 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 to review the means of election into the offices of the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the Local Government Councils in Nigeria; and for related matters’ is seeking to alter Section 7 of The Principal Act is altered by inserting, after the existing section “7”, new sections “7A” to “7C” to establish a new mode of electing the chairmen and vice chairmen of local government areas.
According to the bill, “the chairmen and vice chairmen of each local government council shall be nominated by three members of the Council and elected by all the members of the local government council from among themselves and shall be in office till the expiration of the tenure of members of the Council.
“The chairman and vice chairman of a local government council shall be deemed to have been duly elected to the offices of Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively if they have simple majority of the votes cast at the election.”