Renowned rights activist Aisha Yesufu has called for the scrapping of the Nigerian Senate to reduce the cost of governance.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos, Yesufu, Co-founder of the Bring Back Our Girls Movement, responded to calls for Nigeria to adopt a unicameral legislature instead of the current bicameral system to cut down expenses.
“We need to really and critically examine our democracy and look at what fits us and serves 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,” Yesufu stated.
She supported the idea of a unicameral legislature, saying, “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 practicing 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 criticized the Senate, describing it as “a retirement home for a lot of incompetent and failed governors who didn’t do anywhere well for the people in their state.” She lamented the resources annually allocated to these political ‘retirees,’ saying, “They 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.”
She also pointed out the issue of former governors receiving both a pension from their respective states and a salary from the Senate. “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,” Yesufu asserted.
Drawing a comparison, Yesufu noted that Senegal abolished its Senate in 2012 and has since functioned with a unicameral legislature.
She argued, “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.”
Yesufu further suggested that Nigeria consider reintroducing the parliamentary system of government to reduce costs.
She explained, “We can have a parliamentary system of government, and 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 emphasized that both the bicameral legislature and the presidential system of government have put immense pressure on the nation’s resources and that a shift to a parliamentary system would better serve the country’s financial and governance needs.
