Aisha Yesufu Calls for Scrapping of Nigerian Senate to Cut Governance Costs

Renowned rights activist and Co-founder of the Bring Back Our Girls Movement, Aisha Yesufu, has called for the scrapping of the Nigerian Senate to reduce the cost of governance.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday, Yesufu responded to growing calls for Nigeria to abandon its bicameral legislature in favor of a unicameral system to alleviate financial burdens.

Yesufu proposed that Nigeria could also consider reintroducing the parliamentary system of government to further reduce the heavy expenditures on the National Assembly.

“We need to really and critically examine our democracy and look at what fits us and serves the ordinary people and the masses. The one that will not be too expensive. What we have now is too expensive.

We need to cut costs and not just continue what we have that has not been working for Nigerians,” Yesufu stated.

She emphasized the need for a unicameral legislature, suggesting that merging the Senate and the House of Representatives would eliminate redundancy and save costs.

“I totally support the call for us to have a unicameral legislature and scrapping the Senate.

It is very important because the kind of governance that we are practising is very expensive. As a country, we really don’t have that kind of money.

Apart from this, the fact is that both the Senate and House of Representatives end up duplicating functions in terms of what they do,” she said.

Yesufu criticized the Senate as a “retirement home” for incompetent and failed governors, stating that Nigerians bear the brunt of resources allocated to these political retirees.

“It (Senate) is a joke ground; we cannot say what the Senate does is in a real sense different from what the House of Representatives does.

They do nothing special and at the end of the day, they are paid a humongous amount of our money and such huge allowances for doing nothing different.

We found out that a good number of them, especially those that are former governors, while they get this humongous salary, are collecting pensions from their respective states,” Yesufu added.

She cited Senegal as an example, which practices a unicameral legislature after abolishing its Senate in 2012. Yesufu argued that Nigeria should adopt a similar approach to streamline legislative processes and reduce costs.

“The House of Representatives is enough to take care of the law-making aspect of the nation, oversight, and other functions of the legislative arm of government.

Unicameral legislature should be adopted in Nigeria because bicameralism is too expensive and slows down the business of lawmaking.

It is not working for us, and we don’t have the kind of money to run it and maintain this, especially at a time when the masses are suffering,” she said.

Yesufu also advocated for the parliamentary system of government, stating that it would reduce governance costs and ensure better oversight and efficiency.

“This will also pay us in terms of reduction of the cost of governance because whoever is leading the country is the one that is first among equals.

Ministers in this system are selected from members of the parliament that are elected.

So, that reduces the cost of governance drastically and better than what we have now where separate people are brought in as ministers,” she explained.

Yesufu concluded that both the bicameral legislature and the presidential system of government have placed undue pressure on the nation’s resources and called for a shift towards more sustainable governance models.

“We can have a parliamentary system of government to reduce the cost of governance drastically.

The Prime Minister would not be this powerful and exercise control over everything, including the appointed ministers, because ministers are also members of the parliament,” she said.