Our Senate Is A White Elephant

 By Ugoji Egbujo

Our Senate is a luxury. Akpabio, the Senate President, can’t choose his words carefully. Recently, he reminded a female senator that the Senate is not a nightclub. He was rebuking her for not obtaining his permission before speaking. In his flippancy and uncouthness, idleness could be gleaned. 

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Senator Akpabio received a letter from Ganduje, APC chairmen, and read it in plenary. Then, robotically, he revved the engines of the Senate and dumped Ndume. That sequence would have been fitting in a one-party communist state like China. Ndume’s sin was that he criticized the president. 

He said the president had good intentions but was inexplicably inaccessible and aloof, and his government was filled with crooked gatekeepers and kleptocrats. That was deemed apostasy. So the president must have fumed and ordered the National Assembly, through the party, to punish the rascally Ndume.

But the heretical letter didn’t stop there. It asked Akpabio to tell Ndume to resign from the party. Since the Senate has become the president’s distinguished handkerchief, Akpabio didn’t flinch while reading aloud the portion that asked Ndume to leave the party. The hallowed senate chambers might not be a nightclub, but isn’t it degenerating into a motor park where crude jokes mingle with acts of savagery, and the outrageous don’t often provoke any outrage?

Some have argued that the quality of the legislature is a reflection of societal decay. They had said the same thing about the clergy in churches and mosques, that they reveal the average morality of the collective. But these warped justifications of mediocrity only quicken the rot. A country that borrows to pay salaries must avoid frivolity as much as possible. Our leaders like to say we must not protest against bad governance so that foreign investors do not run away. But do they ever care about how our creditors feel when they see our leaders frittering away our resources wantonly? The Senate has to be scrapped because we have no financial strength to carry a huge white elephant on our lean back.

The country must trim down. We can’t run two legislative houses with members who live like nags and lack the sobriety to draft laws for development. The present Senate looks like an exorbitant superfluity. A surplus we can slough off to breathe better. This federation, just like the states, can thrive on a reformed unicameralism. However, this reformed legislature, as must happen in the states, should be filled with only part- time lawmakers. With a fundamental change in orientation, the lawmakers can understand their roles.

Making laws from Tuesdays to Thursdays, eight hours daily. That will be sufficient for the country. 

What the country needs the most is ethical re-orientation. Not more laws. The masses need role models and transformative leadership that can birth enduring institutions. Living examples of moral probity laying down visions. Since laws are not made every day, the part-time lawmakers will have enough time for committee work, hearings, oversight visits, etc.

The part-time engagement will allow them to pursue other careers alongside legislative and associated responsibilities. The current bloated legislature isn’t just draining the country of resources with humongous perks and privileges the current lawmakers get; it sets the tone for profligacy across the arms. The legislature exists to check other arms of governments and re-orient them through legislation. But if the legislature becomes the epitome of slothfulness and wastefulness, then how can they be effective ethical standard bearers?

The country has an abundance of upright and noble citizens who can represent the people and make laws without fleecing the state. Only sitting allowances ought to be paid. Only those willing to contribute to the development of the country should contest. Lawmaking is a civic responsibility.

The only role our Senate plays that can’t be taken up by the existing House of Reps is the expression of equality of states. All states, regardless of population, contribute an equal number of senators. But since, in our case, all states must produce a federal minister by law, that expression will be preserved. A unicameral legislature is sufficient. We have never really embraced true federalism. So what exactly do we need a Senate for? All its present functions can be handed by the House of Reps where most members are also idle and passive.

But if we populate the single chamber with politicians, then the mischiefs that ail us might still persist. That single chamber will need a framework of statesmanship to lead and sustain a national rebirth. A situation where a Ganduje will transmit a letter for the removal of the whip if he criticizes the government’s Olympic preparation must be checked. The new legislature must have the gravitas to withstand the most overbearing president.

We could craft a unicameral legislature that fuses the House of Lords with the House of Commons. So, under this arrangement, only half of the seats will be filled by elections. The other half will be filled by statesmen and noble citizens nominated through a rigorous process from traditional and religious institutions; the military, police and other security agencies; civil society and professional bodies; etc. The participation of these stakeholders and institutions will offer backbone stability to our fragile democracy. Whatever inherent ideological democratic deficits this idea produces can be ameliorated by allowing only elected persons be elected by members to the leadership positions.

With a unicameral house of stakeholders and elected politicians, the legislature will help to protect and leash the country against political waywardness. A house of part-time lawmakers would be cheaper and more efficient. To complement this legislative rightsizing and refocusing, the country must reconsider a return to the parliamentary system of government. Our presidential system feels like borrowed oversized shoes. They don’t fit. We have neither the finance nor the electorate sophistication to run it.

We can start with a constitutional amendment to fix the federal legislature. From it, the states will have a practical model. If we can’t find a transformational president, then we must seek alternatives. Once we have a responsible and thinking federal legislature, the reforms needed in the other arms and across the agencies can begin.

Let’s scrap the Senate. And redesign the House of Representatives. Let’s start from there.

*Dr. Egbujo is a commentator on public issues