Agitation or call for a reduction in the cost of governance has
been rather perennial. I wrote on this very topic sometime in the 1980s for the
London-based West Africa magazine. I had then called for a reduction in the
number of senatorial seats per state, which then was five. I had also called
for a reduction in the number of ministers and advisers-all these in the
Nigerian Second Republic.
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| *President Buhari and Senate President Lawan |
I would later follow up this discussion with a
memorandum to the Ibrahim Babangida-led Armed Forces Ruling Council
(AFRC), sometime in 1986, in which I suggested that senatorial constituencies
could be limited to what is now 3 Senators per state.
The cost of governance in Nigeria remains disturbingly astronomical in spite of
expressed honest concerns by the citizenry. Kayode Fayemi, Governor of Ekiti
State, recently joined the crowd of agitators by calling for a unicameral
legislature. He would like the Senate to be scrapped. Even before him, former
Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state, now a senator, had called for the number
of Senators per state to be reduced to one. It is gratifying to note that these
political elites share the common concern of ordinary Nigerians, even when one
may not agree with their suggestions.
In calling for the Senate to be scrapped,
Fayemi alluded to the fact that both little Ekiti State and mighty Lagos each
has 3 senators. One would be surprised if Governor Fayemi did not know that the
very essence of the Senate is to serve as a forum where states, irrespective of
size and population, assert the equality of status. That was the philosophy
that informed the American founding fathers to introduce a bicameral
legislature. The House of Representatives accord representation based on population.
Ekiti State has 6 members in the House, while
Lagos and Kano each have 24. However, because of equal representation in the
Senate, the smaller states have not been complaining of domination or
oppression by the bigger states. The preponderance of representation from
one geographical end over the other would be cause for major concern if the
Senate were to be scrapped.
“The primary benefit of the bicameral
legislature”, according to an authoritative source, “is the limits put in place
to prevent abuse of power. No one group is allowed to freely run through the
government to produce policies that only benefit a few. It even stops the
minority from being excluded by the majority under this representation format.”
I concur.
As for the recommendation made by Okorocha, he
might as well have suggested that governors also double up as senators
representing their states. His idea of one senator per state may not be smart
enough. It would only overemphasise the political status and arrogance of
senators.
Of course, the need for a reduction in the number of ministers and advisers at
every level of governance cannot be overemphasised. I am not an enthusiast of
the President picking his or her ministers from each of the states making
up the federation. It is enough that we respect geographical spread, especially
that our nation has been demarcated into six geo-political zones. Nigerians
would need to be educated about this, not least because they are the very ones
who complain if a member of their clan has not been nominated as minister. They
even quarrel over the portfolios of political appointees.
I assert that the disturbing cost of
governance in Nigeria is more of the result of our corruption and prodigal
culture than anything else. Professor Ayo Olukotun elaborated on this in a
recent article in The Punch. The privileged greed of the elite is one reason
the Senate has become an eyesore to ordinary Nigerians. Because these elites
decide their own salaries and emoluments, they believe it is their divine right
to take Nigeria to the cleaners.
The salaries and emoluments of elected
officials should, and must, be decided by an independent body if that is not
already the case. Moreover, these elected officials have their defined
responsibilities. Senators, for instance, are lawmakers. It is laughable when
they claim it is also part of their responsibility to execute projects in their
communities. That responsibility belongs to state and local governments and
should not provide senators with an opportunity to defraud the public.
We are all witnesses to the volumes of stolen
monies and assets being revealed on a daily basis by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission. The billions of naira being stolen daily by both elected and
other officials can hardly be described as the cost of running governments in
Nigeria. Until stiff punishments are meted out to these economic criminals and
termites, and until a new generation emerges to forcefully assert the future of
Nigeria, complaints about the cost of governance will never cease.
*Akinola is a commentator on public issues
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