Scrap Senate to reduce cost of governance, adopt unicameral legislature, she says
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Aisha Yesufu the rights activist has advocated for the scrapping of the Senate and adoption of a unicameral legislature as one way to cut the cost of governance and free up funds for social and economic infrastructure that would lift Nigerians out of poverty.
The Co-founder of the Bring Back Our Girls Movement also suggested the re-introduction of the parliamentary system of government to slash the huge amount spent on the current bicameral National Assembly (NASS) – where, for instance, a Senator is paid about N30 million as salary and allowances per month.
“We need to really and critically examine our democracy and look at what fits us and serve the ordinary people and the masses. The one that will not be too expensive,” Yesufu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview in Lagos.
“What we have now is too expensive. We need to cut costs and not just continue what we have that has not been working for Nigerians.
“I totally support the call for us to have a unicameral legislature and scrapping the Senate, it is very important because the kind of governance that we are practising is very expensive.
“As a country, we really don’t have that kind of money. Apart from this, the fact is that both the Senate and House of Representatives end up duplicating functions in terms of what they do.”
In Yesufu’s view, the Senate has been turned into “a retirement home for a lot of incompetent and failed Governors who didn’t do anywhere well for the people in their state.”
She said Nigerians bear the brunt of the resources annually allocated to these political “retirees’” in the Senate.
“It [Senate] is a joke ground, we cannot say what the Senate does is in a real sense different from what the House of Representatives do.
“They [Senators] do nothing special and at the end of the day, they are paid a humongous amount of our money and such huge allowances for doing nothing different.
“We found out that a good number of them, especially those that are former Governors, while they get this humongous salary, are collecting pension from their respective states.
“There is no way democracy can work for the masses with this kind of waste of public funds that could have been directed to put happiness on the face of the common man.”
Yesufu cited Senegal which now practises a unicameral legislature after abolishing the Senate for the second time in September 2012.
“The House of Representatives is enough for it to be able to take care of the law-making aspect of the nation, oversight and other things that the legislative arm of government does.
“Unicameral legislature should be adopted in Nigeria because bicameralism is too expensive apart from the fact that it slows down the business of lawmaking.
“It is not working for us, we don’t have the kind of money to run it and maintain this, especially at a time when the masses are suffering.
“Having a single legislative arm will pay us better in terms of reduction of the cost of governance.”
Yesufu pressed for the reintroduction of the parliamentary system, saying “this will also pay us in terms of reduction of the cost of governance because whoever is leading the country is the one that is first among equals.
“Ministers in this system are selected from members of the parliament that are elected.
“So, that reduces the cost of governance drastically and better than what we have now where separate people are brought in as Ministers.
“We can have a parliamentary system of government, we shall be reducing the cost of governance drastically.
“The Prime Minister would not be this powerful [like a President] and exercise control over everything, including the appointed Ministers, because Ministers are also members of the parliament.”
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