ChannelsTV; Rescued from September 2012
Former Lagos State Governor and leader of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Bola Tinubu, has made the call for the upper arm of legislature to be scrapped.
Mr Tinubu, who disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday at the 2012 Annual Conference and Awards ceremony of Leadership Newspapers, said that the House of Representatives is better placed at representing the people since its members are closer to the grass roots.
The opposition leader who is a former Senator, claimed this will go a great deal in addressing the nation’s huge cost of governance and recurrent expenditure.
“We have kept complaining about the cost of governance and the recurrent expenditure, but we have never examined the structural problem of even the constitution that we are operating” he stated.
“Why do we need two Houses of the National Assembly, whereas the House of Representatives representing the smaller constituencies is enough in the same number of population.
“Why not get rid of the Senate for a slim and better legislative activity? Let us start examining that” a fiery Mr Tinubu suggested.
- Related: NewsRescue-Why We’ll Scrap The Senate: Saraki Sets Up Committee To Find How Much Senators Earn?- Dr Peregrino Brimah
Mr Tinubu’s call is coming just as the Senegalese parliament passed a law, last week to scrap its Senate and the office of vice-president, as both are considered too expensive for the West-African nation’s budget.
President Macky Sall last month announced emergency legislation to scrap the Senate and turn over its annual budget of almost $16 million to dealing with the impact of deadly floods that recently inundated the country.
Mr Tinubu also expressed his support for moves by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, to take total full control of the commission by asking that he be allowed to pick the Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC).
http://www.channelstv.com/2012/09/19/tinubu-wants-the-senate-scrapped/
