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WATCH how HoR Minority Caucus leader, Chinda analysed why Nig needs to shift from presidential to home grown Parliamentary system
By Chukwuka Kanu
The Dialogue to ensure Nigerians savour its own home grown Parliamentary System entered a different level on Monday as dignitaries from all walks of life espoused different views on the subject matter at the Shehu Yar’Dua International Conference Centre, Abuja.
Panelist of men of substance from egg heads to former governors, speakers, serving lawmakers all gathered to find a common solution to governance shift that would adopt Nigeria’s peculiarities and take Nigerians to the promised land.
To this end, at the National Dialogue on a Home Grown Parliamentary System of Government, a co-convener and HoR Minority Caucus leader Kingsley Chinda as one of panelists gave a breakdown on the way forward.
Hear him:
“I think that restates the cliche by Alexander Pope referred to by His Excellency that for every form of government they must contend for whatever is best administered.
“But I think it’s not just those who administer the system, you must also have a system that is administrable in your own circumstances.
“And that is why today if you ask, some persons might even say that Nigerians are inherently corrupt but that is not the case.
He stressed further: “When we started we were not like this, so you ask the question where did we get it wrong?
“The only thing that we have seen is that the system we imported, the laws we have so much loopholes and it makes it comfortable for us public office holders to do things that we get away with easily.
“The former speaker talked about the issue of impeachment, removing a councillor under our present law is almost an impossibility and so the councillor knows, I’m not talking about members of the National Assembly, I’m not talking about the executive, the councillor at the ward level because you have to get majority signatures of voters and that will be confirmed by INEC, how do you do that? When even the voters register had more than 50% ghost names, so where are you going to get the 50% genuine persons and their signatures confirmed?
“So this system has inherent loopholes that will allow those who are administering it to go scot-free and we need to tighten it.
“Another reason why we say so is that the same Nigerian who takes pride in beating the traffic light, who takes pride with even the NEPA at home you would want to do a bypass, send that same person to Ghana, I’m not talking about the United States, send him to Ghana and there is a queue somewhere, he will line up quietly because he knows that the system is not the same thing he had at home.
” So some people talk about mindset change, yes you might think about mindset change but to me the person sitting behind, the children behind are the people that require a mindset change because we already know that what we are doing is wrong and when we go to a clime where they have a better and stronger system we behave ourselves, so what mind are you going to change?
“We need to change the system, we need to begin to provide stronger penalty for those who commit crime.
“I remembered once either in the 8th or 7th Assembly we proposed a bill for death penalty for public office holders that steal public funds, it did not see the light of day.
” I think that we should begin to take extreme measures that will discourage public office holders from doing the things that they do.
“And the current presidential system we practice is one that allows a lot of leverage, there are so many things that are morally wrong but legally they are right under our laws and so it becomes difficult to hold anybody culpable even where people criticise over such actions.
“And for us to move on, we must begin to look at our own peculiar attitudes and couch laws that will take care of them, that is the homegrown.
“Homegrown is not that we look at our culture, tradition and all that, no. What are Nigerians likely to do if you give them this opportunity.
“Let me use discretion, if you bring a public office holder in Europe and bring a Nigerian public office holder and ask them to exercise discretion on an issue, I’m sure that you will agree that the Nigerian public office holder will be looking at religion, tribe whilst taking that matter.
Watch video below:
THE END
By Francesca Hangeior
The Kano State Law Reform Commission has earmarked not less than N100m for the reforms of various laws of the state in 2025.
The commission’s Chairman, Justice Lawal Muhammadu, disclosed this shortly after he defended the commission’s 2025 budget before the Committee on Judiciary at the state House of Assembly.
According to him, many laws in the state need reforms, a project that started earlier in the year but was unfortunately damaged and burnt during the August protest in the state.
He said the entire work is starting all over again, with a total budget of N100 million to reform all the laws in the coming year.
“There are many laws that are old; some were made since before Nigeria’s independence and are as old as since 1837 and based on England law. Some of them are not even used in the country, but we still have them here.
“Those are some of the reviews we want to do. The ones that are not useful will be withdrawn, and the ones that need reform will be reformed,” he noted.
Others who defended their budgets are the Kano State Radio Corporation, the state Ministry of Information, Kano Pillars Club, Abubakar Rimi Television, the Triumph newspaper, the Kano Printing Press, Kano Film and Censorship Board, among others.
They reinstated their commitment to utilising the resources committed in their budget to improve outputs.
By Francesca Hangeior
Like the Senate, the House of Representatives has invoked the provision of paragraph 17 (3), Part 1, fifth schedule to the constitution for the removal from the Office of the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, FCT, Umar Danladi.
Hon. Julius ihonvbere who moved the motion drew strength from paragraph 17 (3), PT 1, Fifth Schedule of the Constitution and section 22(3) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act Cap , that the President is mandated to act on an address supported by a two-thirds majority of the Senate and House of Representatives for the removal of the chairman for misconduct.
The house drew attention to the conduct of the CCT Chairman, who recently engaged in a public brawl with a security guard at the Banex Plaza Shopping Complex, Abuja, necessitating an invitation from the Senate Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct, and Public Petitions.
The lawmakers said after his first appearance, where he admitted to having been involved in the brawl, he refused to attend subsequent sittings, thereby frustrating the efforts of the committee to investigate the allegations against him.
The house noted that a statutory institution of such magnitude is expected to be an epitome of moral rectitude and virtues of integrity, probity, and accountability.
However, the official conduct of Umar has fallen short of the requisite standard of a public officer to conduct the affairs of such a tribunal.
By Francesca Hangeior
The Director of Information, Secretary, Research and Information (SR&I), National Assembly, Mr Bullah Bi-Allah, has denied the purported budget presentation by President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday.
Bi-Allah said this in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday following the news making the round that the president was billed to present the budget on Wednesday, Nov. 27.
He said such news credited to him was fake, baseless, and unfounded, urging the public to disregard it.
He said: “The attention of the Secretary, Research and Information (SR&I), National Assembly, Dr Ali Barde Umoru, has been drawn to the purported fake news credited to him.”
He added that the news alleged that “His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, will tomorrow Wednesday present the 2925 budget to the joint session of the National Assembly.”
According to him, the news circulating on both social and mainstream media and other outlets is false and should be disregarded.
“The secretary advised that any official inquiry and clarification should follow the official communication channels of the National Assembly.”
He said that NASS was yet to approve the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper, forwarded to both chambers of the National Assembly by Tinubu.
He clarified that the MTEF approval would come before the official presentation of the 2025 budget.
He said, “In view of the above, the SR&I warns peddlers of such information to desist forthwith from using his office to mislead members of the public.”
CBN raises interest rate to 27.5%
Kano budgets N100m for law reforms
Like Senate, Reps move to remove CCT Chairman Umar
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