We don’t need two legislative chambers, Sen Shekarau counsels on cost-cutting measures

Ibrahim Shekarau, the senator representing Kano Central, on Wednesday lamented Nigeria’s high cost of administration, urging President Bola Tinubu to reduce the number of federal lawmakers.

Shekarau made this call during an interview on ChannelsTV “Politics Today.”

He said, “Left to me, we don’t need to have the two chambers, the two houses.

“It’s costing the country. I agree, a democracy means getting as many involved as possible, but the way it is going on now, it’s almost 500 legislators nationwide; I don’t think we really need this much at the moment.”

The National Assembly is made up of 109 senators and 360 House of Representatives members.

The former governor of Kano State also stated that fewer parastatals would result in fewer monitoring responsibilities, which would lighten the load on the central government.

READ ALSO:Confusion as APC rejects Shekarau’s senatorial victory in Kano, heads to court

“Then you’ll discover that the legislative arm will also have to be [downsized] because if there isn’t much to do at the centre, you don’t need all of this sea of hundreds of people really to do oversight assignments,” he said.

“I have been subscribing to the idea of devolution of powers. The Federal Government should really cut its own costs by devolving a lot of these responsibilities down the line, to the states and to the local governments.”

According to him, the Federal Government is spending “so much” at the centre and creating too many agencies and parastatals.

“Unfortunately, we’ve not had leadership that has the courage. There was the Oronsaye report during Jonathan’s time, which has yet to be implemented,” he added

“[Former President Goodluck] Jonathan did not implement it; [former President Muhammadu] Buhari did not implement it.

“The moment you create a parastatal, you’re already talking of board members, chief executive, directors, departments, and the overhead cost of running all these agencies add quite a lot to the expenses of running the government”, he lamented.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now