“Get rid of the Senate” – Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Less than two weeks ago news hit the media about how the lower House in Senegal approved a law which seeks to scrap the Senate of that country. Then, questions were raised whether that kind of an issue could possibly be considered by Nigerian lawmakers, and if it was, if they could ever bring it to reality. Well, it seems something like that might just be considered – even if it is just to get our senators on their toes.

The idea, interestingly, is coming from former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, himself a former senator whose wife is also a serving senator! Tinubu is now advocating for only one National Assembly, saying having two Assemblies is consuming the funds of the country.

Tinubu particularly called for the cancellation of the Senate, stressing that they are only performing similar functions which the House of Representatives would have done successfully. He was speaking at the 2012 annual conference and awards ceremony of Leadership Newspapers Group in Abuja.

According to him, “we have kept complaining about the cost of governance and the recurrent expenditure…but we have never examined the structural problems of even the constitution that we are operating… Why do we need two houses of National Assembly when House of Representatives represent smaller constituencies enough in the same number of population? Why not get rid of the Senate? To equip better and effective legislative activities, let us start examining that.”

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