By Ebere Agozie
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Mohammed Ndarani says part-time engagement of the members of the National Assembly will attract only committed, patriotic and selfless representation, with no corrupt tendencies.
Ndarani said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.
“This will be a sure path to ridding the legislature of bad eggs.
“It will inject into the legislative business, members who would seek to tow the path of honour and promote ideas that would make, and not mar, our polity’’.
The senior lawyer called for the collapse of both the Senate and the House of Representatives into one house for effective legislation and cut costs of governance.
“The fact remains that what Nigeria needs for now is a unicameral legislature, which we already have at the State and Local Government levels.
“I think the present fulltime regime is a corrupt imposition as Senators and members of the House of Representatives get themselves paid for work not genuinely done.
“They put the future of Nigerians at stake by draining money that would have been put into other critical sectors in their own hands.
“We want Nigerians to sacrifice; therefore this is the sacrifice that we need, to put this country on the path to greatness.
`It is because they are onfull time’, that they allocate huge sums of money to themselves for their annual vacations, recesses, which is what they enjoy all the year round’’.
He also called for highly moderated and modest salaries and allowances, reduction of the number of aides, and the complete removal or scrapping of constituency projects.
“The National Assembly are working part-time and being paid full time. The two chambers of the National Assembly, are only full on the day of inauguration.
“The question therefore is, where do the rest of the lawmakers go to during deliberations in the remaining part of the year?
“How many days do they sit in a year? They officially sit for 130 days in a year, so why should they be branded full time legislators,’’ he queried?
According to Ndarani, `we already have unicameral legislation for the states, and they are doing pretty well. Why not adopt this for the federation?
“This is far more relevant in view of the fact that the senators and members officially sit for a paltry 130 days in a year.
“Unicameral and part-time engagement would augur well for our polity and would be financially more feasible than the current situation’’.
Ndarani noted that it has become a norm for both houses to be occupied by former Governors, ex-Chairmen of Councils, ex-Ministers and other persons who have held political positions in the past.
“A majority of these positions are those for which the former occupants have continued continued to receive retirement benefits.
“Their presence in the National Assembly only qualifies them to draw double salaries, which our laws forbid, but which is adored in the legislative houses.
He said that making legislative business less financially rewarding will make it less attractive, and reduce the clamour to get into what is already obviously an over-bloated legislature.
“This will reduce legislative aides and dissuade flamboyant, corrupt, greedy and selfish representation.
“We need to amend the Nigerian Constitution to formally introduce unicameral legislation at the federal, state and local government levels, and constitutionally reduce the salaries of legislators.
“The National Assembly, State Houses of Assembly and Local Government Legislative Assemblies should only sit and operate on part-time basis,’’ he concluded.
