- By Ebere Agozie
- A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mohammed Ndarani, says part-time engagement of the members of the National Assembly will attract only committed, patriotic and selfless representation.
- Ndarani made this known in interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.
- “This will will inject into the legislative business, members who will promote ideas that will make, and not mar, our polity’’.
- The senior lawyer called for the collapse of both the Senate and the House of Representatives into one house for effective legislation and cut costs of governance.
- “The fact remains that what Nigeria needs for now is a unicameral legislature, which we already have at the State and Local Government levels.
- “I think the present fulltime regime is a corrupt imposition as Senators and members of the House of Representatives get themselves paid for work not genuinely done.
- “They put the future of Nigerians at stake by draining money that would have been put into other critical sectors in their own hands.
- “We want Nigerians to sacrifice; therefore this is the sacrifice that we need, to put this country on the path to greatness.
- “It is because they are on `full time’, that they allocate huge sums of money to themselves for their annual vacations, recesses, which is what they enjoy all the year round’’.
- He also called for highly moderated and modest salaries and allowances, reduction of the number of aides, and the complete removal or scrapping of constituency projects.
- “The National Assembly are working part-time and being paid full time. The two chambers of the National Assembly, are only full on the day of inauguration.
- “The question therefore is, where do the rest of the lawmakers go to during deliberations in the remaining part of the year?
- “How many days do they sit in a year? They officially sit for 130 days in a year, so why should they be branded full time legislators,’’ he queried?
- ”We already have unicameral legislation for the states, and they are doing pretty well. Why not adopt this for the federation?
- “This is far more relevant in view of the fact that the senators and members officially sit for a paltry 130 days in a year.
- “Unicameral and part-time engagement would augur well for our polity and would be financially more feasible than the current situation’’.
- Ndarani noted that it has become a norm for both houses to be occupied by former Governors, ex-Chairmen of Councils, ex-Ministers and other persons who have held political positions in the past.
- “A majority of these positions are those for which the former occupants have continued continued to receive retirement benefits.
- “Their presence in the National Assembly only qualifies them to draw double salaries, which our laws forbid, but which is adored in the legislative houses.
- He said that making legislative business less financially rewarding will make it less attractive, and reduce the clamour to get into what is already obviously an over-bloated legislature.
- “This will reduce legislative aides and dissuade flamboyant, corrupt, greedy and selfish representation.
- “We need to amend the Nigerian Constitution to formally introduce unicameral legislation at the federal, state and local government levels, and constitutionally reduce the salaries of legislators.
- “The National Assembly, State Houses of Assembly and Local Government Legislative Assemblies should only sit and operate on part-time basis,’’ he concluded. (NAN)
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