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.
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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