A former presidential aspirant under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Abdul-Jhalil Tafawa Balewa, says the adoption of a parliamentary system of government is not the answer to the nation’s current socio-political and economic challenges.
Tafawa-Balewa made this statement in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Lagos.
He was reacting to calls for a shift from the presidential system of government to the parliamentary system of government, to solve the country’s challenges.
Recall that Nigeria practised the parliamentary system of government, modelled after the British Westminster system, from 1960 to 1966.
During the period, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was the Prime Minister while Dr Nnamdi Azikwe served as the ceremonial head of state.
“No (adoption of parliamentary system), but I think democracy has to be modified in Nigeria to be able to represent us.
“To introduce something somewhat new, something radically different will be too costly for us, and it won’t make much sense at this time,” the ex-presidential aspirant said.
According to him, the country should rather be urgently restructured to allow for devolution of power from the centre to the federating zones.
The politician said this would make the zones develop along their comparative advantages, adding it would make most of the country’s challenges disappear.
He further stated that the South-West can concentrate on the service industry, South East on the marine industry, manufacturing and commerce.
He added that the South-South could stay with just the petroleum manufacturing derivatives while the North could concentrate on agriculture.
