GOVERNOR Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State has added his voice to the debate calling for a reduction in Nigeria’s legislators saying that the country really needs only the House of Representatives and the senate is a luxury.
Over the last week, there have been calls for a reduction in the number of lawmakers as the cost of governance is a drain on the treasury. Nigeria currently has two houses in the National Assembly and with the country’s lawmakers being among the highest paid in the world, the cost of running the legislature is as high as 3% of the budget.
Speaking at the just-concluded 25th edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group conference, Governor Fayemi said Nigeria has to look into the size of government. Nigeria’s National Assembly consists of a senate with 109 members and a 360-member House of Representatives.
Governor Fayemi said: “We do need to look at the size of government in Nigeria and I am an advocate of a unicameral legislature. What we really need is the House of Representatives because that is what represents.
“You have three senators from little Ekiti and you have three senators from Lagos state. It’s a no-brainer that it’s unequal, I guess the principle is not proportionality but that if you are a state, you get it automatically but I think that we can do away with that.
“There are several things that we can do away within the government. The Oronsaye Report that proposed mergers of several ministries, departments and agencies that are doing the same thing is something that the government should pay serious attention to and reduce the resources being expended on them.”
