Jonathan Nwokpor
Renowned rights activist Aisha Yesufu has demanded that the Nigerian Senate be abolished in order to lower government expenses.
The request was made by Yesufu, co-founder of the Bring Back Our Girls Movement, during a Sunday interview in Lagos with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
In response to suggestions made by some sectors that the nation should switch to a unicameral legislature in order to lower the expense of governance, the bicameral legislature—the two-chamber National Assembly—should be abolished.
The activist suggested that Nigeria consider reintroducing the parliamentary form of governance as an alternative to heavily funding the National Assembly.
She said Nigerians would not reap the benefits of democracy until the high expense of government and corruption are addressed.
“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.
“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,” Yesufu said.
“A retirement home for a lot of incompetent and failed governors who didn’t do anywhere well for the people in their state,” the senator claimed the Senate had become.
According to her, most of the yearly funds given to these Senate “retirees” in politics continue to come from Nigerians.
Yesufu added: “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 to the face of the common man.”
She claims Senegal is operating under a unicameral legislature following the Senate’s second abolishment in September 2012.
She said: “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 cost of governance,” she said.
Yesufu protested that Nigeria was not operating under a true federal system of governance.
The activist said that to lower the government’s expenses, the nation might also switch to a parliamentary form of administration.
According to her, Nigeria’s current presidential system of government is no longer viable.
“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,” she said.
The activists claimed that the country’s resources were under great strain due to the bicameral legislature and presidential form of government.
“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 and exercise control over everything, including the appointed ministers, because ministers are also members of the parliament,” she said.
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