As Nigeria clocked 58 years of independence, panel discussants at a privately owned television station in the country have expressed reservations on the existence of the National Assembly, calling for the abolition of the bicameral legislature seen as being too expensive for government to maintain in the face of other competing demands.
Speaking at TVC News, Lagos on Monday, October 1under Journalists Hangout tagged ‘Special Independence Anniversary,’ programme, the discussants called for abolition of the bicameral legislature comprising Senate and House of Representatives, which according to them, serves as a conduit in draining the scarce financial resources of the country.
Rather, according to them, Federal government has to scale the bogus allowances paid to members of National Assembly which are not in conformity with the economic realities of the country and are at variance with global practices and standards of even the ones in advanced countries.
The discussants made up mainly of journalists and led by Babajide Otito-Oju, News Manager in the television station, recalled “When Uhuru Kenyatta assumed as the Kenya’s President, he abolished the bicameral legislature which is expensive. I think our President should show courage and firmness in doing same to serve huge financial resources spent on the system.
“It does not make sense to have 108 members in the Senate and 360 members in the House of Representatives. After their different deliberations and passage of bills into law, they still need to come together as National Assemblymen to pass the bills into law before sending to Mr. President for assent. This wastes time and other resources.
“It advisable to introduce unicameral legislature in the country where many unemployed persons and high level of poverty are in the increase to cut costs and re-pool the money to other sub-sectors and payment New Minimum Wage demanded by the workers.”
In particular, Otito-oju recalled “When Nuhu Ribadu, a one-time chairman of Economic Financial and Crimes Commission, EFCC was invited to address a seminar attended by the national legislators, he told them point blank ‘You are not transparent in telling the public about the exact salary and allowance each of you collects. Tell the public your salaries and allowances so that they can compare and contrast in knowing the exploiters of the economy.
They made reference to a speech by Peter Obi, a one-time Anambra State governor who said “If the public would know the salaries and allowances of each governor in this country, people will stone them on the streets.”
They argued that even in US where Nigeria borrowed presidential system of government from, the salaries and allowances of President, Vice President, Senators and others are in the public domain. Yet in our country, it is a guarded secret.
“You will recall that when ex-US President, Barack Obama left White House, he and his family moved into a rented apartment. In Nigeria, is this possible? While our President is serving, he must buy land and build, yet nobody will query him or ask him the source of his income. For instance, once huge allowances are paid, the legislators will just move into undeveloped area in Abuja, buy land and build. The allowances are much. Government has to slice down the amount in the interest of all the people,” the discussants observed.
